A group, Coalition of South East Youth for Buhari has replied to the allegation by prince B.B Apugo, a member of BOT of APC in which he said Ogah, the governorship candidate of the party in the 2019 governorship election in Abia was used by Okezie Ikpeazu to truncate the chances of the party in the state.
In a statement signed by the National coordinator of the group, Hon. Demian Igbokwe, he said there is no truth in the allegation, accusing Apugo of anti party activities.
The group accused Apugo of suffering memory loss as a result of his old age. “In fact, to say the least, that piece credited to BB only ended up validating the saying that a particular kind of old age comes with loss of memory, what in Medical Science is called amnesia, and reduces one’s reasoning like to that of a child. No wonder an English adage captures it all by proclaiming that” the child is the father of the man”. And that is the case of BB Apugo today, who for the sake of just be heard or seeking to become relevant again, having gone past his time, chose to ventilate the unwisdom of his old age in the wrong quarters, the media and against the wrong person” the statement read.
It also added, “From my background, we are trained never to join issues with old people, but with the recent lies told by a man that claims to be a BOT member of our Party, one must sometimes look beyond paternal instructions of childhood to correct certain obvious wrongs being made to look right, despite the age of the person involved. Again, one should be able to talk to the listening public and set the facts clear from whatever the old man is trying to sway with his lies.
“Chief BB Apugo has never shown true attributes of a statesman in Abia as a State, especially in our newfound political movement called APC. And I wish to address this issue from the angle of one who has followed everything that happened with the candidates of Abia APC in the last election.
“And as the National Coordinator of Coalition of South East Youths for Buhari (COSYB), I followed the whole governorship and Presidential campaigns in Abia State. Chief Apugo did not show face in any of the campaigns, not even the ones we held in his Ibeku village! You know that kind of thing: APC in the day, PDP at night in Government House, Umuahia. Such people trade everything from candidate to Party to themselves, their conscience and even their communities. BB has always been like that to a Party of which he is a senior member.
“He was never in support of Dr. Uche Ogah in the last APC gubernatorial primaries and he did not support his election in any way.
“Dr. Ogah did not agree to come seat down with him to discuss how to do their usual ” sharing formula” of Abia State common wealth. This was why Chief Apugo preferred a candidate he would have controlled over Dr. Ogah.In any case, that as understandable, since he was, as usual, looking, as they say in Igboland, his pocket. I do not have any serious quarrels with that, but to come out to say what was not true, is not true and will Nevers be true about a most committed and astute Dr Ogah is what millions of people like me in Abia State will neither accept nor allowed to stand!”
The group expressed disappointment that a senior member of the party conducted himself the way Apugo did, accusing him of being a mole in APC.
“I am of the opinion that, when one is referred to as a BOT member of a Party, that person is expected to live above board in all things dishonourable, but the case of BB is putting a lie to that truism. This BB’s own is so different that I sometimes wonder who submitted his name for that position. It might have been a PDP State Chairman of any of the Southeast States at the time. With Chief Apugo, who neither supported nor worked for President Muhammadu Buhari in the last election, the Party did not need any opposition in Abia State. We are aware of who he supported and we will show evidence of his support for that candidate when the right time comes.
“We are aware that Chief Apugo made some money from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar while Atiku was Vice President and, as such, his loyalty has remained with Atiku. This is the reason he worked for Atiku of PDP in the 2019 election in Abia as against the candidate of his presumed Party, which is President Muhammadu Buhari. Again, let him deny this and we will throw the evidence in his face to his utter shame”.
He continued, “With the record of what we had at hand after the 2019 election, we would have submitted everybody’s scorecard to the Party at the centre, but for the fact that Dr. Ogah is not into the politics of mud-sliding, he maintained that it was good we forget the past and forge ahead. Chief Apugo’s performance sold him out completely, and that brings us to the question : Why would such a character as Chief Apugo be struggling for attention after his activities in that last election, which were, more or less even public. It is only in Abia State such things will happen and one could still find the man on a table as a BOT member. In other States, such a person could be lynched by the youth arm of such a Party, at least to serve as a good deterrent to others like him.
“The Senatorial election result of his Polling Unit, Ward and Local Government is another factor to tell who Chief Apugo is. He took the Senatorial election agent’s money and worked glaringly against his presumed Party candidate(Sen. Nkechi Nwogu).
“In 2015, he took the monies provided by APC for the Presidential and also gubernatorial elections and ended up bringing out a paltry vote of 5000.
“In 2019, with Dr. Uche Ogah, APC got over 89,000 votes after the rigging and re-writing of results against APC which he also supervised and aided in the Presidential election.
“With Dr. Ogah, APC came second as against the APGA gubernatorial candidate he supported and this was also on record.
“Chief Apugo has overtime imposed himself as leader and maximum ruler on candidates who are running for gubernatorial elections in Abia, thereby, always trying to play lord of the land. Chances are that this was why Dr. Ogah did not give him all the millions he wanted, which turned out to infuriate him about the person of Dr. Ogah.
“This is a character that has often forcefully taken land and standing properties from the poor and downtrodden in Umuahia and he is known across Umuahia for this notorious character, which goes to tell why any serious politician that wishes to succeed should never be seen or associate with him.This is because the Umuahia people are not happy with him, hence the reason his son failed, woefully, even while having the Party’s ticket during the 2019 election.
“Chief Apugo wants attention and people he could be milking at every given time.
“He lives in attention. He glories in attention. He basks in attention and I am certain now he has got the attention he was seeking in that illfated inteterview since he chose the wrong person this time round, His Excellency, Hon. Dr Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, the Servant- Leader of Abia State APC!
“Dr. Ogah wasn’t that candidate or victim of his local wash-wash. A man that could neither win his Ward, nor his Local Government Area in a Party he claims to be all- and- all, what qualifies such a man as a leader of that great Party in his LGA? I challenge him to produce his polling booth figures, Ward and LGA results for the last election. Let us start from there.
“Dr. Ogah is the only APC leader in the Southeast Zone, who delivered 5/5 in his LGA in 2019 election and he has an unmatched support base. We know that those are things small principalities as Chief BB Apugo can not comprehend.
“Dr. Ogah is so busy reviving a sector that our dear President appointed him to work upon and is too focused to join issues with a yesterday’s spent force like BB Apugo. Only if he could toe the line of honour, like other political retirees, who go home, stay with their grand children, play whot and ludo games and stay happy ever after, will Uncle BB appreciate the bitter truism that, today it is you on song and tomorrow belongs to another!”
Chief Apugo was in the said interview quoted to have said, “The truth remains that we had no candidate, the candidate that stood for us, Uche Ogah, was just a makeup. He did not come to contest election; in fact before the election, he called and told me that it would be better to leave the governorship seat for Okezie Ikpeazu. It was from that time that I kept myself off him. It was not an accident, it was a clear game that Ikpeazu played with the seven APC governorship aspirants; he bought the forms for all of them. Well, that is by the way because we are not going to compare the past with what we are looking forward to get in the next election if God permits”.
