A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has urged Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, not to grant political concessions to the faction led by Chief Ugo Agbala in the ongoing formation of Ward and Local Government Area executives.
Okechukwu, who recognised Mbah as the new leader of the APC in the state, said he was reacting to reports suggesting that Agbala’s camp may be given two out of the four slots allotted to the APC in the proposed nine-member Ward and LGA executive structure.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, he questioned why such a favour should be extended to Agbala, describing him as a “serial renegade” whose actions, he claimed, severely weakened the party. He argued that the faction, under Agbala’s leadership, played a major role in the APC’s poor showing in the 2023 presidential election, where the party managed only 4,722 votes in Enugu State.
He contrasted this with the 56,000 votes the APC secured in the 2019 presidential election, noting that the party had embarked on massive membership mobilisation ahead of the 2023 polls before, according to him, Agbala was imposed on the party—an event he said derailed their progress.
The former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) warned Governor Mbah that rewarding Agbala would be harmful to the party’s rebuilding efforts. He accused the former state chairman of adopting a confrontational leadership style that pushed many members out of the APC, contributing to what he described as the worst presidential vote tally in the country.
Okechukwu called for justice and balance in the distribution of executive positions. He added that if Governor Mbah still holds Chief Agbala in high regard despite the controversies, he should consider allocating him two slots from the five positions belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), rather than from the APC’s share.
