Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just conducted 2019 general elections have called on the national leadership of the party to probe the Ebonyi State governorship candidate of the party, Senator Sonni Ogbuoji, over his alleged diversion of campaign fund, and anti-party activities.

A House of Representatives candidate for Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency, Mazi Ogbonnia Onu, who spoke on behalf of others, described Senator Ogbuoji as a “killer of APC” in Ebonyi due to his alleged nonchalant attitude and failure to mobilise members of the party for the elections in the state.

According to him, the starvation and diversion of funds made it difficult for the mobilisation of APC members in the state that caused the cataclysmic defeat of the party in the state.

They alleged that the failure of the party in the state during the presidential and other elections was because Ogbuoji never mobilised or campaigned sufficiently for votes as he abandoned his campaign and supporters before the elections.

The aggrieved candidates noted that the Senator only stayed in Abuja and appeared around 6:30pm on the eve of the Governorship election claiming that the Presidency had directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him winner.

Onu accused Ogbuoji of substituting validly elected candidates with his cronies who later defected to the People Democratic Party (PDP) at the eve of the Governorship election which indicated his romance with the ruling party in the state.

“During the primaries, Ogbuoji was not a popular candidate for the Governorship seat but he circumvented the process which caused infractions between party leaders and other aspirants. Ogbuoji also shortchanged all popular candidates that won their primaries in the state.

“Most worrisome is the fact that some of his cronies that he used to replace the validly elected candidates of the party decamped to the PDP at the eve of the Governorship election. This posits that Ogbuoji is a mole in our great party, APC.” This, no doubt, showed that all Senator Sonni Ogbuoji was looking for was election support fund from the party, having not campaigned anywhere or displayed any seriousness that he was actually running any election as he could not deliver his ward to the President or other candidates of APC in the election.

“It is worthy to note that some stakeholders of the party donated huge sums of money to Ogbuoji Campaign Council, including the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who equally donated some amount of money and also shared reasonable amounts of money to all National and state House of Assembly candidates in Ebonyi State,” they said.

The group urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of APC to discountenance all the antics of Senator Ogbuoji as his new tactics were to discredit other stakeholders and members just to lobby for ministerial position.

As the group urged the teeming supporters of APC to keep hopes alive on the party, the aggrieved candidates recommended immediate probe of Ogbuoji on the election funds and anti-party activities that led to the defeat of APC in the just conducted general elections in the state.

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