A meeting summoned by the Imo State Chairman of the All Progressive Party, APC, Chief Hilary Eke, to settle the squabble raging among senior members of the party in Ngor Okpala LGA has ended in a stalemate.
The meeting which held in the state party office at IMSU round about, Works Layout, Owerri was attended by the LGA officers including the party Elders from Ngor Okpala LGA.
The bone of contention is the position of APC chairmanship in Ngor Okpala LGA, presently occupied by Hon Okey Azuonwu.
A faction of the party led by two former Commissioners, namely, Dr TOE Ekechi, and Barr Ogbonna Amadi allegedly want Hon Azuonwu removed as the LGA chairman, while the Elders led by Hon Greg Egu, Chief Val Okere wants Hon Okey Azuonwu to remain in office and complete his tenure.
This Newspaper learnt that the TOE Ekechi group had petitioned the State Executive council, led by Dr Hilary Eke, to replace Azuonwu over what they termed Azuonwu’s anti party activities during the last general elections.
The Ekechi group is believed to be powerful, as it has politicians that control the funds of the LGA, through the TC Chairman, Chief Ugochukwu Okere who is Ekechi’s protégé.
During the meeting presided over by the state chairman, nearly all the LGA party officers supported Azuonwu, saying that he worked hard for the party, which led PDP to win APC in Ngor Okpala with less than six hundred votes, and wondered how Azuonwu could be accused of playing anti party.
The state chairman was reminded that the party had earlier set-up a committee headed by the Owerri zonal chairman of APC, Chief Chris Ogoma to investigate the matter, after which the committee submitted its report, requesting the state chairman to make the Ogoma committee report open.
This Newspaper learnt that instead, the Ekechi group asked that the party should not rely on the Ogoma committee report, as it was fraught with ambiguities. It rather asked that another committee led by Bar Ogbonna Amadi, who is an interested party in the matter should tender its results, which would be acceptable to the Ekechi camp.
The Greg Egu group refused, and the meeting ended in chaos, and stalemate, as the status quo was asked to remain, which means Hon. Okey Azuonwu remains in office for now.
However, grapevine sources told this newspaper that what caused the problem was that Ekechi discovered that the Okey Azuonwu led LGA Exco worked against Ekechi’s interest during the primaries, which led Hon Mathew Nwogu to defeat the former Commissioner to clinch the Aboh Mbaise.Ngor Okpala Federal constituency ticket of the APC.
At the same time, the Egu Group accused Ekechi of working for PDP candidate to stop Mathew Nwogu.
