The leadership tussle currently facing the Abia State chapter of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA is far from over as Onapuruagu Prince Nnanna Ukaegbu insists he is the duly elected chairman of the party.
This comes as Rev. Augustine Ehiemere says he remains the authentic chairman of the party in the state.
Speaking with ABN TV on Wednesday in Umuahia, Prince Ukaegbu said a court of competent jurisdiction sitting Umuahia has pronounced him the duly elected chairman of Abia chapter of APGA.
Dissatisfied with the court decision, the Rev. Ehiemere faction approached the Owerri division of the appeal court which later dismissed their appeal in February and upheld the decision of the High Court in Umuahia to the effect that Prince Ukaegbu is the state chairman of APGA.
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According to Prince Ukaegbu, instead of Rev. Ehiemere and his faction to abide by the decision of the appeal court, they again approached the same court, urging it to reverse itself, an application that was thrown out and a cost of two million Naira awarded in his favour.
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“One would have thought that that will be the end of the tussle but Ehiemere and co clung on to power solely for the simple reason that its own executive led by his own deputy and 22 all-state exco accused him, wrote a petition, and forwarded to me that he stole the sum of N56,470,000.
“Ehiemere is fighting tooth and nail to protect himself and his criminal activity within the party. That’s not all, with we being law-abiding citizens, we didn’t want to take the laws into our hands, we made applications to all the relevant authorities and the Inspector General of Police approved that the state secretariat of APGA at Aguiyi Ironsi should be made available for we and the party to conduct our normal and legitimate duties,” he said.
According to him, the premises was made available to the exco under his leadership where they addressed the press, and took vital decisions, among which are that Ehiemere and co will not remain in the party while the investigation is ongoing.
To this end, the party suspended him along with Sunday Onukwubiri, Chukwuemeka Nwokoro, and Lucky Erondu for financial misappropriation in Abia APGA to the tune of N56,470,000.
According to Prince Ukaegbu, the party has since set up an investigative panel to look into the allegations of theft of party funds against the suspended officials, an investigation expected to be concluded within two weeks.
Prince Ukaegbu alleged that upon the conclusion of the business of the day, Rev. Ehiemere stormed to party’s office, accusing him (Ukaegbu) of stealing the sum of N50m kept in the party’s secretariat, an allegation Ukaegbu said is unfounded.
He insists that the party is focused on 2023 and will not be distracted by anyone, telling Rev. Ehiemere to be ready to provide answers on the alleged missing funds.
The said funds in a petition sighted by our correspondent and addressed to the national chairman of APGA, Victor Ike Oye includes donations from Barr. Etigwe Uwa, Prof. Gregory Ibe, Chief Nnamdi Iroji, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, Alex Ikwechegh, and others amounted to the said alleged to have been stolen.
