A FOUNDATION member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has asked Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, not to reward the group led by the immediate past chairman of the party in the state, Ugochukwu Agballah, whom he described as “political bandits,” in the ongoing composition of ward and local council executives in the state.

Okechukwu, who acknowledged Mbah as the new leader of the APC in the state, stated that his appeal was prompted by reports circulating that two of the four slots allocated to the APC in the proposed nine-member ward and council executive structure had been ceded to Agballah.

He queried the basis for such a gesture, asking on what “valid ground or good conscience” Mbah would reward someone he described as “a serial renegade” who, according to him, “led a political coup that contributed to the APC securing only 4,722 votes in the 2023 presidential election in Enugu State.”

Okechukwu recalled that the APC had garnered over 56,000 votes in the 2019 presidential election and had hoped to build on that performance in 2023, following extensive membership mobilisation.

He, therefore, urged the governor to ensure equity and fairness in the composition of party executives. He suggested that if the Mbah rates Agballah so highly despite widespread reservations, then he should, as a matter of fairness, allocate two slots to him from the five slots belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

Responding, Agballah stated that he ran the most transparent administration in the APC, adding that over 20 wards in the state had no presence of the party when he took over. He stated that Okechukwu never supported the APC and engaged in anti-party activities during the last general elections that led to his suspension from the party.