A political group in Ebonyi state, All Progressives Youth (APC) Youth Vanguard, has called on the Chairman of Ivo Local Government Area (LGA), Chief Onyebuchi Ogbadu, to resign his appointment over alleged anti-party activities.
In an exclusive interview with Blueprint in Abuja Sunday, the Coordinator of APC Youth Vanguard, Ivo Chapter, Comrade Innocent Okorie, alleged that the council boss has been sponsoring and hosting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rallies in Ivo LGA even at venues closer to his house and at government facilities, where projects are ongoing.
Okorie also decried the alleged council boss’ intimidation and threats to perceived obstacles to his PDP agenda in Ivo LGA, “using his military background as advantage.”
The group, while applauding Governor Umahi for connecting Ebonyi State to the centre with huge benefits, equally reiterated that the Ivo Council Boss should rescue himself honourably as Executive Chairman of Ivo LGA as he lacks the moral grounds to remain in office or the group shall motivate an impeachment process against him and flush him out disgracefully.
He said: “With all due respect, Chief Onyebuchi Ogbadu, has no option than to resign for being a PDP agent and sabotaging the APC in Ivo LGA. He is not hiding it; he had severally threatened to resign and rejoin his political godfather, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Oliver Osii and Livinus Makwe to whom he owes his loyalty in PDP. This is why we are calling on him to carry out his threat and resign now, instead of continuing his treacherous ways against our great party, the APC.
“Meanwhile, Hon. Ogbadu who has remained a shadow of himself, disgruntled and confused since his godfather, Senator Anyim and his political allies; Livinus Makwe and Oliver Osii, failed to defect to the ruling APC with Governor Umahi, portrays the piteous picture of a frustrated politician particularly as the stakeholders of Ivo have deserted him.
“The Chairman of Ivo LGA claims he equally defected to the APC with Governor Umahi, but till date he is yet to convene a meeting of stakeholders of the area and inform the good people of Ivo the present direction of the political pendulum in Ebonyi State, unlike his counterparts in other LGAs.
“Rather, what he does is to keep pretending to be in APC, while in reality, he is still in PDP; to the point that he sponsors PDP rallies in Ishiagu and Akaeze, his home town even at government facilities, where projects are ongoing and where ordinarily shouldn’t be used for such political rallies. He does this sponsorship with Ivo LGA monthly allocation through a PDP proxy whom we have identified.
“What the Chairman of Ivo LGA also does is to deploy his military experience as a former soldier to intimidate the real APC members and major stakeholders in Ivo LGA, alleging frivolously that they were destroying the APC in the area, whereas he is the one destroying the APC in Ivo.
“Like King Ahab in the Bible, who troubled Israel, but turned round to accuse Prophet Elijah, who was fighting against his vices as the ‘troubler of Israel’, Ogbadu has been engaging in failed scapegoatism. We need not be told who is destroying APC in Ivo, because we know the Council Chairman is the one, particularly with evidence of him paying salaries to either sacked or resigned former appointees, who refused to join the APC.”
“What he should understand is that Ivo is APC and a greater majority of our people are supporters of our dear Governor and his chameleonic disposition can never change that. Enough of his resignation threats. He either sits up and support the government he serves or we move for his removal and nothing will stop us from achieving that, because we are on the side of the people.”
Blueprint recalls that Ebonyi state has witnessed a lot of political intrigues since the defection of Umahi from PDP to APC in November last year, especially the resignation of many appointees of the state government.
