From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Ward Congress Appeal Committee for Enugu state yesterday said it was poised to resolve all grievances arising from the exercise in the state.
Chairman of the panel, Mr. Bernard Mimiko told journalists that the Committee had received petitions from aggrieved members assuring that they would give every of the complaints fair treatment.
Mimiko who spoke shortly after a meeting of the Committee with stakeholders of the party in the state noted that he took the meeting to a neutral venue due to contentions in the state chapter that made it difficult for the members to access the party secretariat.
APC in Enugu State now has two factions, one led by Dr. Ben Nwoye who has been the Caretaker Committee chairman of the party in the State and another group led by his erstwhile Deputy Chairman, Chikwado Chukwunta.
Nwoye had prompted the security agencies to take over the secretariat after over 100 thugs disrupted a meeting of the State Working Committee as well as alleged planned attack at the place.
On the same day, the Chukwunta faction announced Nwonye’s “removal” as Chairman of the party at another location in the state.
But yesterday Mimiko said, “The Secretariat is now contentious, we decided to take the meeting to a neutral ground and the committee paid.
“But I can tell you that we will get out of it. We came here for reconciliation. In every political process there must be grievances and we are appealing to all party members to see it not as quarrel but as normal political process and that it should heal and come together as one. We need each other more than any other thing.”
He called on members of the party to embrace one another, insisting that the state chapter had all it takes to win elections.
On why many chieftains of the party were absent from the reconciliation meeting, he said they were all communicated but that some of them, including Nwoye took permission.
He said, “We met with Nwoye yesterday, had a fruitful discussion with him, he gave his apologies for not coming here today.”
Stressing that the panel was not in the State to punish or pass judgement on anyone, assuring that “we want to bring everyone on board.”
Former Senate President and member National Caretaker Committee Sen. Ken Nnamani said the APC in Enugu State was now positioned to win elections, noting that he feels ashamed that the party had never won any election in the State in the last seven years.
He said, “I feel ashamed of being in a party that does not win elections. That is why we want to rejig the party to bring in leaders who will not use it for business.
“However, we are beginning to see a new horizon and determined to do something differently with the new leadership we now have.”
Nnamani added that the party was big enough to accommodate everyone but stressed that members must tolerate each other to be able to derive benefits of the new reawakening.
Spanners were however thrown to the peaceful meeting when an overzealous member of the party snatched the microphone from a chieftain of the party, Ben Onwusi.
Onwusi, was lamenting the hijack of result sheets in the 260 wards of the state during the ward congress by some members thereby denying genuine members who ran and won the election access to it.
He had called on the members to imbibe truth to save the party from further crisis.