APC: No rift between Onu, Umahi – Nwachukwu

The Immediate past Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, Hon. Eze Nwachukwu, on Saturday, said that there was no rift between Governor David Umahi and the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, as being speculated in some quarters.

Nwachukwu, cleared the air in Abakaliki when reacting to a petition written to the national leadership of the Party in Abuja by one Mr Chijioke Uwa against the state governor, David Umahi, accusing him of marginalizing old members of the party.

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He, however, called on the leadership organ of the ruling party to immediately commence the suspension action against the petitioner, owing to the fact that the author of the petition was allegedly not only working with some members of the opposition Party, PDP, in the state to destabilize APC but had engaged in acts capable of factionalizing the party.

In the petition, Uwa had also accused governor Umahi of sidelining the old members of the Party in the State, despite the understanding reached before his defection from his former party, the PDP.

Nwachukwu said: “It is quite misleading for anybody to suggest that there is a problem between the State Governor, David Umahi, and the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.

“The Governor is the Governor of the State and the Minister is the Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and both of them have been working for the progress of Ebonyi State.

“None of them has complained of having any issue with the other. So, people should stop creating problems where none exist.

“For me, and the members of APC in Ebonyi State, we are members of one indivisible family. And every meeting of the Party that has been convened, the Minister is always invited and he has always given reasons if he is not disposed to attend any meeting,” Nwachukwu said.

Nwachukwu, who is currently the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Markets and Parks Development, urged the public to discountenance the petition, adding that it had no fact.

He added that Umahi had fully accommodated every member of the APC since his defection to the party, noting that 65 per cent of the recent federal board appointments were old members of the party, courtesy of the governor.