Chairman of the State Working Committee (SWC) of the All Progressives Progress (APC) in Enugu State, Deacon Hon. Okey Ogbodo, has declared Senator Ayogu Eze

An impostor, warning him to stop parading himself as the gubernatorial candidate of the party for the 2019 polls.

“For the avoidance of doubts, the APC flag bearer in Enugu State is Barrister George Tagbo Ogara,” Deacon Ogbodo said in a Disclaimer and “Urgent Public Announcement” released in Enugu, the state capital.

The statement reads: “My attention has been drawn to several published claims, especially online, by a certain Ayogu Eze, to be the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Progress (APC) in Enugu State.

“For the avoidance of doubts, the APC flag bearer in Enugu State is Barrister George Tagbo Ogara.

“Ayogu Eze’s claim is most preposterous, indeed unfounded, because he came last (5th) in the APC primaries held in line with the Direct Primary Election option where he scored 7,690 votes while the winner, George Tagbo Ogara, scored 57,675 votes. It is, therefore, hilarious how he came to become the so called APC flag bearer.

“Conversely, our authentic flagbearer, Barr. George Tagbo Ogara, a candidate whose imprints have been visible all over Enugu Stale since the pre-primary era and indeed, up till this moment, had emerged from a democratically transparent process, as approved by the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC, through direct primaries on October 4, 2018. The primaries took place simultaneously in all the 260 Wards in Enugu State.

“I use this opportunity to warn the said impostor, Ayogu Eze, to desist from this self-destructive path, and queue in with the mainstream party structure headed by my humble self – Deacon Hon. Okey Ogbodo, to work for the success of our flagbearer, Barr. Ogara, and indeed for APC as a whole in next year’s general elections, instead of dissipating precious time and resources on a phantom nomination which only a deluded mind would countenance.

Ayogu Eze is not a candidate an ambitious Party like APC can gamble on. One isolated, arrangee – nocturnal, visit to Aso Rock does not, and cannot change Ayogu Eze’s notoriety as a political hard-sell who would need a generous dose of miracle to win even a Councillorship election in his Enugu-Ezike homestead.

“Ayogu Eze and his co-travelers are apparently on a frolic of their own, and are better advised to desist from their obvious mercantilist agenda, to avoid further destabilising the Enugu State APC.

“It is strange and indeed unfathomable to think that Enugu APC nomination would be sold in a suitcase or handed over to someone in some place other than the homeland, Enugu. Those who claim to be APC flag bearers should point out the addresses of their campaign offices and mention the personnel in charge.

“We have duly transmitted the official list of candidates of the Party to the National Secretariat, for onward dispatch to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, and any super-imposition of names other than those in that list, would be detrimental to the electoral interest of the APC.

“By this Disclaimer, I invite the appropriate security agencies to take control, stop this shenanigan, and reign in Ayogu Eze and his cohorts, and restrain them from this dangerous, ignominious path, capable of provoking an avoidable breakdown of law and order within the body of APC in Enugu State.

“For emphasis, Barrister George Tagbo Ogara remains the one and only APC flagbearer in Enugu State and this is the realistic, verifiable official position for now.”

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