Emenike’s Loyalists Sweep Ward Congress in Abia

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

The Secretary of the Contact and Strategy Committee of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Chief Ikechi Emenike, has reinforced his firm grip of Abia APC against rivals as his loyalists swept leadership and delegates positions in the ward congress held at the weekend.

The congress had passed off peacefully in all the 184 wards of Abia State despite the tension it had generated in the camps of the various Abia APC chieftains jostling for the control of the party from the grassroots.

Loyalists of the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, apparently shot themselves in the foot after they reportedly boycotted the ward congress and even alleged that a parallel congress was held.

But the Chairman of the APC Ward Congress for Abia State, Hon. Israel Sonny Goli, told journalists that there was no parallel congress whatsoever in Abia.

“In events like this, definitely those not favoured by the outcome of the congress would come out with such allegations. But we cannot accept that as a true reflection of what happened today (Saturday),” he said.

Goli, who led the seven-member committee to monitor the congress in a number of wards across the state, said that the congress was an all-inclusive exercise hence the committee had no business with anybody that refused to participate.

He lauded Abia APC faithful for their “quite impressive turnout and right attitude” to participate in the congress which was why there was no report of violence or unruly conduct in all the wards.

Meanwhile the Chairman of Abia APC, Chief Enyinnaya Harbour, has dismissed the purported suspension of the party’s foremost chieftain in Abia, Chief Ikechi Emenike, saying that it was a joke taken too far by “sponsored elements”.

Speaking with journalists in Umuahia, Harbour insisted that Emenike, who is the Pro-chancellor and Governing Council Chairman of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka(UNN), remained a bona fide member of APC at local and national levels.

He regretted that the Minister of State for Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Uche Ogah, could have presided over a meeting in Ntalakwu Oboro Ikwuano country home of one Emeka Atuma where “some charlatans announced the reaffirmation of a purported suspension”.

“So, it is necessary to state here that Chief Ikechi Emenike has not at any time been suspended from the APC as a political party whether in 2018 or in 2021 or at any time at all.

“It is necessary to state here for the records Chief Ikechi Emenike is currently engaged in running serious national assignments for the federal government and the APC,” the Abia APC chairman said.