Ruling party denies parallel council congresses in Ebonyi

• Onyeama explains polarised exercise in Enugu
• Group endorses Ebri for national chairman

The All Progressives Congress (APC) said there were no parallel local council congresses in Ebonyi State to elect party executives at the weekend.Congress committee chairman, Nicholas Adekunle-Ajayi, stated this yesterday in Abakaliki, the state capital, while addressing newsmen at a joint media briefing with the state party chairman, Eze Nwachukwu.

Adekunle-Ajayi described reports of parallel congresses in Ebonyi as misleading, lacking in truth and without merit.He said that the congresses that held across the 13 local government areas were peaceful and successful, affirming that he supervised the congresses in five local council areas across the three senatorial districts of the state.

He added that other members of his team monitored the exercise in the remaining eight local government areas., insisting that the reports submitted by the teams showed that the congresses were peaceful, credible and transparent.However, Nwachukwu described the reports of alleged parallel congresses by two factions of APC in Ebonyi as having originated from the figment of imagination of rumour mongers.

He explained that APC has only one structure under the leadership of the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.He told newsmen that Ebonyi APC LG congresses held on Saturday, May 12 and that it was peaceful, transparent and attended by a large crowd of members.

In a related development, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama, said yesterday that he resorted to parallel congress in his Udi Local Council because submitting to the Ikechukwu Odigbo-led congress committee would deny his supporters participation in the exercise.Onyeama, who alongside Presidential Assistant on Judicial Reforms, Juliet Ibekaku, gathered some persons at Udi Comprehensive School, where they allegedly appointed delegates to the national convention on Saturday, said his supporters were denied congress materials.

But in a swift reaction, Odigbo dismissed claims of parallel congresses in the state, insisting that the committee adhered strictly to the guidelines for the congress as laid down by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).Meanwhile, groups and individuals have endorsed former governor of Cross River State, Clement Ebri, for the National Chairmanship position of the party in its next convention.
 
National Chairman of the Northern All Progressives Congress Youths Movement, Salisu Abubakar, said: “Ebri is a man of repute who has paid his dues for the advancement of the party and the country at large.

“The APC needs somebody with the requisite experience to pilot its affairs, having served as the Governor of Cross River State, National Chairman of Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), national caucus member of the APC and also has nationwide contacts for the effective leadership and administration of the Party.”He said Ebri’s peaceful, humble, disciplined and accessible nature were major factors for the endorsement, and pledged to comb all the nooks and crannies of the northern part of the country to drum support for him.