Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki

The Director-General of Senator Sonni Ogbuoji Campaign Council for the 2019 governorship election in Ebonyi State, Senator Anthony Agbo, has disclosed what led to the “abysmal performance” of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the general elections.

He said that party’s governorship candidate, Senator Sonni Ogbuoji, was largely the architect that designed and executed the loss of the party at all levels in the state.

At a press conference in Abakaliki, the state capital, the DG said that the explanation had become necessary in order to lay to rest a series of questions and allegations being bandied around by some party faithful over what led to the party’s poor outing at the polls.

Agbo said: “As the Director-General of the Ogbuoji Campaign Council with utmost humility and respect to all, I have decided to speak on the matter bearing no malice to none, but to provide our own version of answers to various questions Ebonyi people in general and APC members, in particular, have been asking since the governorship election.

“Many, especially APC members and supporters have been asking questions and wondering what led to the party’s gross underperformance at the elections in Ebonyi.

“We believe that it has become imperative for the council to speak and open up on why the party made a very bad outing in the state in order to put the records straight,” he said.

The former lawmaker said that the APC governorship candidate, Ogbuoji, neither made any meaningful contributions to the campaign activities nor participated actively as one facing election as important as the 2019 exercise.

He said that campaign council got down to work as soon as it was set up and inaugurated by Ogbuoji on December 2, 2018 by drawing a campaign blueprint which it presented to him (Ogbuoji).

Regrettably, according to Agbo, the campaign plan was never put to use as the governorship candidate simply told the council to keep it in view.

Agbo said: “The council sat down to produce a comprehensive and detailed campaign blueprint which captured activities that were to be carried out at local government, ward, communities and village levels as well as individuals’ contacts and consultations.

“This was presented to the governorship candidate, Sen. Ogbuoji, who told us that he was pre-occupied with arranging issues relating to the election at Abuja level and that we should keep it in view,” he said.

Agbo alleged that Ogbuoji shunned all efforts made by the council, stakeholders and party leaders to bring genuine peace and reconciliation among the candidates whose names were allegedly changed in Abuja.

“After the APC primaries in the state, the names of several persons who won House of Representatives and state Assembly tickets were changed in Abuja. This generated a very volatile and inflammable situation in the party that later gave rise to multiple litigations.

“The council made several representations to Ogbuoji and party leadership in the state for the reversal of the damaging action but the appeal was not heeded,” the DG alleged.

Agbo lamented that the disaffection between Ogbuoji and the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, contributed largely to the failure of the party in the state.

“Ogbuoji refused to attend a peace-reconciliation meeting convened twice by Chief Martin Elechi and attended by key party leaders including the minister at the prompting of the council.

“The DG visited Ogbuoji twice, made phone calls and did everything to persuade him to issue a convenient date for another meeting but he refused and the meeting was never held before the election,” he stated.

The DG further alleged that the governorship candidate, Ogbuoji, who is also the representative of Ebonyi South Senatorial zone in the National Assembly, never provided logistics for the campaign.

“The party went into the election with only N2,580, 000 released by Ogbuoji on the eve of the election,” Agbo lamented.