BY TONY EDIKE
ENUGU—FORMER Commissioner for Education in Anambra State, Chief Chukwuma Okoye, Thursday, gave reasons stakeholders of the party passed a vote of no confidence on the member representing Awka South and Awka North in the House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Nwogbo.

According to him, the lawmaker’s tenure is not beneficial to the constituency.

Okoye, who is a chieftain of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, also lashed out at the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, saying his hasty utterances on the party’s decision against Nwogbo without first ascertaining why the stakeholders moved against him was condemnable and unacceptable.

Okoye told reporters in Enugu, yesterday, that the vote of no confidence passed on Nwogbo for alleged non-performance became necessary after reviewing his alleged abysmal performance at the National Assembly.

He said: “Leaders of our party, APGA, in Awka South and North federal constituency had carefully evaluated the performance of Emeka Nwogbo and came to realise that there is nothing to show that his constituents have benefited anything good from his representation, hence we decided to make our resentment known by passing a vote of no confidence on him and the decision was taken by majority of party leaders in  the constituency.

“It is not surprising that Alhaji Shinkafi jumped to the arena to speak against our leaders particularly Chief Austin Ndigwe because his antecedents in the party are well known to us.  If Shinkafi had known what it takes to deliver a councilor, House of Assembly member or a federal the party’s governorship candidate in Abuja only for Nwogbo to come last in the gubernatorial primaries.  He has come again to rubbish party leaders who had spent their resources and time to build the party.”

Okoye maintained that the interest of the party leaders was to ensure that the people of the constituency got quality representation that would give the electorate confidence to vote for the party in future elections, stressing that nobody had any plan of imposing any candidate on the constituency.

Also speaking, APGA Women Leader in Awka North and South, Chief Mrs. Mary Ezeani, called on party members to disregard the claim by some suspended ward chairmen who dissociated themselves from the vote of no confidence passed on the lawmakers, saying they had nothing at stake.

“Nobody banned Nwogbo from seeking re-election, but we passed a vote of no confidence on him for non-performance and ought not to be re-elected because there is nothing to show from his current tenure.

“Whoever is fighting our party leader, Chief Austin Ndigwe is making a great mistake because as a leader he has the right to speak out when things are going wrong in his constituency.”