By Dennis Agbo

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has asked all the good and well-meaning people of Enugu state to resist the attempt being made by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to foist Ebeano political dynasty back to Enugu government house through the 2023 governorship Election.

The State Chairman of the APC, Barr. Ugochukwu Agballa, in a press conference, raised the alarm that the emergence of Mr. Peter Mba as the Governorship candidate of the PDP in the state was a direct return to the dark age of Ebeano misrule of the state.

Agballah described Mba as a protégée of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, recalling that the reign of Nnamani between 1999 and 2007 was a gestapo era, marred with violence, deaths, corruption and terrorism, adding that the Mba Governorship bid was to use the opportunity to pay N40 billion debt that Nnamani owes the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON.

The APC Chairman called on prominent indigenes of the state, including the spiritual director of Adoration ministry, Enugu, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, and the Nwodo family, to rise against the return of Ebeano political dynasty.

He further recalled that Peter Mbah ws the Chief of Staff as well as Commissioner for Finance during the reign of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani and called on the people of the state to support APC in order to stop Mbah from becoming the next governor of Enugu.

Ugo Agballah said: “I am sorry for Enugu State. This is not the Enugu we laboured for. I’m the bridge between the founding fathers of Enugu and the new generation; because I worked with them. I used to serve them in my (father’s) house; the Onoh’s, when they used to come for Wawa meeting in my house.

“What we have in Enugu is a far cry from the dreams of those great men. And my duty today is to restore the old order and to provide the platform for genuine people to rule us.

“Any attempt by anybody including my friend and Governor, Lawrence Ugwuanyi, to bring back the ignoble Ebeano political system, to superintend over the political affairs of Enugu will be resisted by the people of Enugu State.

“I stand here as the face of that resistance. We will not accept the re introduction of a group that brought sadness, tragedy, brutalization on the people of Enugu State. A group that destroyed people’s houses in order to perpetuate themselves in power. I have always been in opposition to them and I rekindle that opposition today.

“Today, we stand in defiance to that attempt to bring back, under any guise, the ignoble Chimaraoke Nnamani political dynasty and hegemony. We stand against it. I understand, my friend Ugwuanyi must have been bewitched because it’s unlike him. Ugwuanyi is a man that is synonymous with peace, whose governance brought about peace, and that is what endeared me to him.

“But for Ugwuanyi to midwife the comeback of this ‘gangsters’ is unacceptable to me. It’s unacceptable to majority of Enugu State. And I ask Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka why is Mbaka silent? I ask Nnia Nwodo to rise. The time has come for the true leaders of Enugu to rise and bring a stop to this nonsense.

“I stand here as a midwife of the new order, the new Enugu State we want, and the new order has no place for Chimaroke…This is not the Enugu we want and we are going to campaign. And these are the issues that will rule this campaign. They are asking me to talk, Ugo Agballah will talk. And I will release information to the people of Enugu State.

“I will release information on why they want a comeback. Of why this ignoble group want to takeover the economy of Enugu State, to pay back a debt of N40bn. It will not happen. Enugu State coffers will not be used to pay back anybody’s debt.

“I have been silent, watching them, but I’ll be silent no more. I call on the people of Enugu to rise. If you don’t rise now, your freedom is at stake. From 1999 to 2007 Enugu was not safe. Enugu was a besieged state, a ‘terrorist’ state; we can’t allow terrorism back again.”