The Acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, Nwafor Alphonsus Onyeachonam has urged the factional chairman of the party, Barr Ugochukwu Agballah to stop associating the party’s national chairman, Dr Abdulahi Ganduje with illegality.
His warning comes amid a letter said to have been written by Ganduje threatening to sue the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, ENSIEC, for not recognizing Agballah’s faction ahead of the September 21 local government polls.
In a statement made available on Friday, Onyeachonam claimed that the letter could not have emanated from Ganduje.
He alleged that those circulating the letter “are not only committing a criminal offence of forgery, but are also trying to intimidate and harass an electoral umpire in their desperation to continue with their ‘business as usual’ merchandising with our respected political party.”
“Let it be known that the National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje is a polished scholar whose reputation cannot be tarnished.
“Dr. Ganduje is too busy with the party business and does not have time for such frivolity. He knows the provisions of the law such as the Enugu State High Court decision on the leadership of the party in the state and cannot allow himself to circumvent the law.
“Our National Chairman was once suspended by the APC in Kano State and as a law-abiding leader he went to the court to quash the suspension and not in the mannerless and bravado that the dissident merchants in Enugu are presently employing.
“Therefore, the letter being bandied by the suspended members of our party is fake and should be disregarded as a nullity.
“What should be of utmost concern to the paraders of this fake document is to gently approach the court with an application to quash the suspension of Ugochukwu Agballah.
“That is leadership with respect to rule of law as was exemplified by our National Chairman during his own commotion,” he said.
Onyeachonam added that “if the National Chairman should ever conceive of writing such a letter, it should have come from the National Legal Adviser of the party. We have however confirmed that the purported letter is fake and never emanated from the National Chairman.
“The purveyors of the threat on ENSIEC should do better and approach the court instead of ranting in the air.
“I encourage the ENSIEC to stand its ground and ignore the fake letter, knowing that it has the authority of the court to deal with the authentic leadership of the APC in Enugu state led by Dr. Alphonsus Nwafor.”