2023: PDP Campaign Council Slams APC Chairman, Agballa Over Alleged N1.3 Billion Fraud

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

…Urges EFCC To Step In

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The People’s Democratic Party, PDP Campaign Council in Enugu State Tuesday came hard on the Embattled State chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC Ugochukwu Agballah, for blaming the ruling party in the state over the allegations of fraud involving him and his party’s 2023 gubernatorial flagbearer, Chief Uche Nnaji.

The PDP however, asked Agballa to go and settle with his aggrieved party members and restitute to them whatever that belongs to them that he has taken.

African Examiner recalls that some aggrieved members of APC in Enugu State led by the pioneer Deputy State Chairman, Comrade Adolphus Ude, had protested at the national Secretariat of the party in Abuja, yesterday over allegations of N1.3 billion fraud involving the chairman of the party, Ugochukwu Agballah and the governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji, a development that has aggravated the crisis bedeviling the party the state.

The leader of the protesters who is also Chairman, Concerned Members of Enugu APC, Comrade Ude, had said that the protest became imperative after the duo misappropriated the sum of N283 million meant for the expression of interest and nomination forms to ensure that the party fields candidates for the governorship, and all the National Assembly and State Assembly seats in the state.
They equally alleged the embezzlement of about $1.5 million being allowances for Enugu State delegates in the 2022 national convention and presidential election.

However, in his reaction, Agballah claimed that the protesters were sponsored by the PDP and that the allegations were untrue as they were yet to be mobilized financially by the national leadership.

But reacting to the allegation against the PDP, yesterday at the campaign headquarters, Director of Communication and spokesperson of the PDP Campaign Organisation, Barrister. Nana Ogbodo, said that the party as usual, has been dragged into a purely APC affair by the loquacious Agballah.

According to him, “This is not a fight between the PDP and the APC, it is squarely a fight between angry and deprived APC members and a greedy and conceited party leadership” Ogbodo stated.

Ogbodo, noted that the Enugu State PDP should ordinarily have no business with the self-confessed fraud, embezzlement and impunity going on in the Enugu State chapter of the APC, except to say that they have further exposed to the world that they have no good intentions for Enugu State.

He added that the PDP was surprised that Agballa is just coming out to deny that no dollars were given to APC national convention delegates through him and his governorship candidate and that no funds were released to him for any nomination forms.

The PDP campaign Spokesman, maintained that the APC has never been a factor in elections in Enugu State, let alone now that all the key stakeholders of the party in Enugu, including former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, former Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odoh, former state chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria VON, Mr. Osita Okechukwu have abandoned the party to Agballah and his godfathers.

“If the APC was in the ICU before Agballah’s controversial emergence as the State Chairman, the party has now been effectively embalmed and consigned to the mortuary by the totalitarian, greedy and the corrupt leadership of Agballah and his two godfathers” it said.
The group therefore, calls on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to step in to investigate the “weighty allegations” boldly made by leaders of the party against Agballah and Nnaji.