The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Ebonyi State has, once again, lamented attacks by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on supporters of the party in Afikpo North, especially threats on Governor Umahi’s opponent in the Ebonyi South Senatorial race, Sir Ifeanyi Eleje.
In a statement made available to Blueprint in Abuja on Saturday night, signed by the Director, Media and Publicity, Odohzia Ebonyi Campaign council, Mr Charles Otu, APGA said that many party supporters have been pencilled down for attacks for the simple reason of asking for good governance.
The party appealed for intervention by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Presidency, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Defence Staff, INEC Chairman, Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Security (DSS), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among others.
The statement read: “The attention of the Campaign council of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Professor Benard Odoh, otherwise known as Odohzia Ebonyi Campaign council has been drawn to some fresh plots to destabilize the campaign of the party’s senatorial candidate in Ebonyi South, Sir Ifeanyi Eleje, by the agents of the Umahi-led APC government masquerading as Ebubeagu officials in the council area.
“Our findings showed that the state government has concluded plans to abduct, torture and remand APGA supporters in police custody and throw some others into the correctional facilities. Some other influential stakeholders and supporting the party we also learnt have already been pencilled down for maiming, which will land them in the hospitals till after the election.
“To make good their threats and plots which we had earlier gotten hints of, the Ebubeagu security operatives working under the Chairman of the Local Government Area, Mr. Uchenna Ibiam, were detailed to abduct, torture and ransack the residences of our Senatorial candidate’s supporters. They will then be coerced into making confessions that they were sent by the party’s leaders to destroy and deface APC campaign billboards in the area.
“It was reliably gathered that the Ebubeagu militia, on the instruction of the leadership of the council area, invaded the residence of an APGA supporter, one Amobi Ujah, where he was abducted, while his friend and another APGA supporter, one Chijioke, was lucky to escape.
“The victim was consequently taken to the council area where he was severely tortured, forced to confess in a video and name the Director General of the Ifeanyi Eleje Campaign council, Mr. Iheukwumere Okogwu, among others, as sponsors behind the destruction of APC billboards in the area. After the Council Chairman, Ibiam, personally recorded him (as he could be heard at the background in the video) having serious injuries inflicted on him by the Ebubeagu boys, they later handed him over to the state’s Police Command.
“Consequently, the Ebubeagu officials invaded the residence of the said Mr. Okogwu at Ukpa village in Afikpo North in the early hours of today, stealing a motorcycle and other valuable property in the compound, claiming to be hunting for him. Since then, Okogwu has not been seen and neither is his whereabouts known to the public. Already, we were informed that there’s heavy tension in his Ukpa village over the invasion of his residence and the gunshots that were heard in area.
“The campaign train of our dear Party- APGA has been the most orderly and peaceful in the State. It is to the point that even when virtually all our candidates’ billboards and posters have been destroyed and defaced, we have since chosen to engage and speak directly to the voters, leaving the agents of government to be destroying inanimate objects like our billboards.
“We call on the Inspector General of Police, Baba Usman to immediately order an investigation into the wanton killings and unprovoked attacks on Umahi’s political opponents in Ebonyi State by this illegal para-military Ebubeagu Security outfit, which he had already personally barred from participating in the activities leading to the 2023 general elections. Again, we join other Ebonyians and Nigerians including civil society groups to beckon on him to immediately disband the illegal Ebubeagu militia outfit and retrieve all the dangerous weapons they have stockpiled to terrorize innocent citizens before, during and even after 2023 general elections.”
Reacting to the allegations in an exclusive interview with Blueprint, the Special Adviser to Governor Umahi on Media and Strategy, Hon. Chooks Oko, said APGA is merely engaging in propaganda and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
He said: “You can see that the release is full of cock and bull stories of imagined victories and conquered territories. When you have such conjectures, it becomes glaring that the tale-bearer is on a fast spin, hallucinating over the hope for more than the real.
“For the avoidance of doubt, APGA and her candidates are mere pretenders in the political space that cannot command anyone sitting down to plan for them. Gladly, issues have been handed over to the police. Let the police do their work and tell us the truth. Depending on cheap propaganda will lead us nowhere fast.”
