A former National Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Godwin Udu has raised the alarm over a purported plot by one Edozie Njoku and his cohorts to destabilise and ‘sink’ the party allegedly for their selfish interests.
The APGA was recently enmeshed in a fresh crisis with Mr Edozie Njoku announcing he had the backing of the Independent National Electoral Commission and a Supreme Court order to ascend the office of the national chairman of the party.
However, APGA last week, said it had filed a lawsuit in the Abuja High Court challenging INEC’s alleged failure to provide evidence proving that Njoku ever held a national office within the party.
But reacting to the development in a statement, on Sunday, Udu observed the matter hovering around the alleged misconducts and eventual expulsion of Njoku from APGA was still pending in a competent court, saying he was merely heating up the system apparently to distract the rightful leadership and owners of the party.
“Edozie Njoku thinks that he can outsmart the National Chairman, not knowing that the current Chairman like his predecessor, Victor Oye understands the game of politics more than him. Our case with Njoku is coming up in October; so, let’s see which court gave him (Njoku) an order to be APGA’s national chairman,” he said.
According to him, Mr Njoku was subtly scheming on how to become the national chairman of the party ahead of the Anambra State governorship election in 2024, adding, “The whole idea is to reap where he did not sow”.
He said, “It’s obvious to party faithful and supporters that Edozie Njoku is merely using hook-and-crook skirmishes to launch himself into becoming the chairman of APGA. And this he has started doing lately again because of the Anambra governorship election, which is coming up next year. He is looking for people to defraud like he did in the 2023 general elections. But we can not allow him. His style is immediately after every election he would disappear and you won’t see Edozie Njoku again untill the next election. He’s only interested in the affairs of APGA when election is around the corner.
“Allegations and records abound that in 2023 he sold fake APGA tickets amounting to hundreds of millions of Naira, which he was said to have lavished at Transcorp Hilton Abuja where he lived and claimed to be APGA chairman, wearing APGA muffler on his neck till the money finished before moving to his rented apartment in Katampe.
“He likes hobnobbing with one failed APGA candidate to another promising them tickets just to rip them off their money because someone has given them an assignment to go and create confusion in the party. It’s on records Njoku does not do anything straightforward. This is someone who never participated in any APGA convention anywhere yet he’s claiming the position of the national chairman of the party.
“I have a message he sent to the former APGA national chairman, Ozonkpu Victor Ike Oye that he wanted to buy a ticket to contest in 2019, but they told him at the office the sale of ticket had closed. This was in 2019 and yet, he’s heavily bribing his way through his cash-and-carry court order. We shall meet in the court.
“We shall not fold our hands and leave him to destroy APGA and use the party as his meal ticket. We won’t allow you again because Oke anagi eri ihie onye mu Anya (meaning that rats don’t eat a portion of food belonging to a man who’s awake). You should go and look for what to do and leave APGA alone. Enough of people using Njoku to form APGA faction, because APGA is bonded from wards, local governments to states and national executives.”
He further alleged Njoku was desperately plotting to ascend the national championship of the party in order to gain the needed grounds he has been seeking to trade-off its pieces of properties.
“Njoku’s sole plan is to sink APGA and sell off what the party has laboured for under Victor Oye and his executives, then lavish the proceeds on whiskey champagne and women. But we won’t allow that to happen. Yes, we know Edozie Njoku as one who can pay anything to anybody who can help become the national chairman of APGA for a few months so that he can defraud people. We have the facts, and he knows he does not have these facts we have,” he added.
