2023: Crisis Rock APC Over Alleged N1.3B Fraud

The Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been thrown into crisis over an alleged controversy surrounding N1.3 billion fraud allegation.

Naija News gathered that some aggrieved members of the party led by the Chairman of the Concerned Members of Enugu State APC, Adolphus Ude went on a protest on Monday over the fraud allegation.

It was learnt that Ude and the other aggrieved members went to the party’s national secretariat in Abuja to protest and seek the intervention of its national officers.

The group accused the Enugu State chairman of the party, Ugochukwu Agballah and the governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji of the alleged fraud.

Ude who claimed to be the chairman of mainstream Enugu APC also alleged that there had been “impunity, gross misconducts, fraudulent administration, embezzlement of party funds perpetrated by the state chairman and the governorship candidate.”

Ube and his group claimed that Agballah and Nnaji had embezzled the $1.5 million meant for allowances for Enugu State delegates in the 2022 national convention and presidential election.

He as well alleged that all the funds generated by the party from sales of nomination and expression of interest forms which amounts to about N283 million have been embezzled.

The aggrieved members, therefore, called for urgent intervention in the matter by the national secretariat before issues go out of hand.

They submitted that with all the situation at hand, they feared that the APC as an opposition in Enugu will be threatened if their concerns are not addressed.

He also revealed that the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, who was the former Chairman of the APC Reconciliation Committee, was aware of some ugly developments that brought about the emergence of the new state executive currently in court.

Ude recalled how some leaders of APC in Enugu State protested to the national secretariat in August 2022 where they submitted a petition calling for the removal of Ugochukwu Agballah as the state party chairman and appointment of a caretaker chairman to save the state chapter of the party from destruction and disgrace.

However, Naija News gathered that in his reaction to the protest and allegation, the Director-General of Nwakaibe Uche Nnaji Campaign Organisation, Fidelis Edeh, told pressmen that enquiry can be made from the national headquarters of APC to confirm if such funds were released.

He added that “APC should be the one to confirm and not the candidate.”

In his reaction too, the Enugu State APC chairman, who is been accused of embezzlement, Agballah, observed that the claims were untrue because the party is yet to be mobilised financially by the national leadership.

“We’re yet to get any money. The governorship candidate is the person funding the campaigns,” he said.