Director General of Senator Sonni Ogbuoji Campaign Council for the 2019 governorship election Senator Anthony Agbo has opened up on the reasons the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost in the 2019 general elections in Ebonyi.
Briefing newsmen in Abakaliki, Agbo said immediately the council was set by Ogbuoji on Dec 2, 2018, it swung into action and drew a campaign blueprint which it presented to the APC governorship candidate but regretted that the campaign plan was never put to use.
“The council sat down to produce a comprehensive and detailed campaign blue print which captured activities that were to be carried out at local government, ward, communities and village levels as well as individuals contacts and consultations.
“This was presented to Ogbuoji who told us that he was so pre-occupied with arranging issues relating to the election at Abuja level and that we should keep it in view”, he said.
He said Ogbuoji shunned all efforts made by the council, stakeholders and party leaders to bring genuine peace and reconciliation among House of Representatives and state assembly candidates whose tickets were changed in Abuja.
“After the APC primaries in the state, the names of several persons who won House of Representatives and state assembly tickets were changed in Abuja.
“This generated a very volatile and inflammable situation in the party that later gave rise to multiple litigations. The Council made several representations to Ogbuoji and party leadership in the state for the reversal of the damaging action but the appeal was not heeded.
Agbo stated that the irreconcilable differences between Ogbuoji and other major stakeholders and candidates dealt a deadly blow to the party in the state and regretted that all efforts to bring the two leaders to a reconciliatory talk failed.
The Director General said that all stakeholders were not happy with the manner the governorship primary was conducted in Ebonyi, particularly as it had to do with the lists of delegates from Ikwo and Ezza South local government areas.
“Ogbuoji refused to attend a peace reconciliation meeting convened twice by Chief Martin Elechi and attended by key party leaders including the Minister at the prompting of the council.
“The DG visited Ogbuoji twice including phone calls and did everything to persuade him to issue a convenient date for another meeting, he refused and the meeting was never held before the election “, he said.
The DG explained that the party did not campaign vigorously for election due to poor funding of the electionerring activities.
“We wish to state categorically that since the inauguration of the council till the last election held in March 9, that the council did not receive any money from the governorship candidate or from any other person or source. The DG and members used their private vehicles all through the the period, maintained and fuelled them.
“No single financial request presented by the council to Ogbuoji for purposes of the campaign no matter how big or how small was ever honoured. The party went into the election with on N2,580,000 released by Ogbuoji in the eve of the election,” Agbo said.
