The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State has refuted reports that its inability to renew the rent of its secretariat in the state was responsible for its ejection from the property for the Labour Party to occupy.
APC said it deliberately decided to disassociate itself from the unclear deals of the Ben Nwoye-led former executives of the party with the landlord of the said office, which is now a subject of litigation.
The state secretariat of the party at 126 Park Avenue, GRA, was unveiled recently as the new office of the Labour Party in the state, with reports that APC could no longer renew its rent as a result of the crisis within the party.
Reacting to the reports, the state Chairman of APC, Ugochukwu Agballah, in a statement, said: “This is not only petty but laughable, and needs no formal denial before discerning members of the public could know that this is fabricated lies peddled by enemies of the people to whom the unmatched success of the new leadership of APC in the state is of great surprise and pain.
“For formalities, however, we wish to draw the attention of the public that the said takeover and unveiling of the former APC Enugu State Secretariat by the Labour Party as its new office is not a result of the inability of our party to renew the rent, but a deliberate decision by the new leadership of APC in the state to disassociate itself from the unclear deals of the Nwoye-led former executives with the landlord of the said office, which is now a subject of litigation.
“The Nwoye-led executives, due to its affinity for diversion and misappropriation of public funds, owed the landlord of the said office some four years rent, despite receiving funds appropriated and sent by the national leadership of the party for payment of the rent for the said years. Nwoye has since been unable to explain either to the national leadership of the party or its new leadership in the state why he refused to apply the funds released by the party for the rent for which it was disbursed over the years.”
The statement added that the Agballah-led new executives, true to its disposition “refused to renew the lease as it would have made them inherit a liability left by Nwoye, who is currently facing investigations and charges both bothering on misappropriation of funds.”
(Courtesy: The Guardian, excluding headline)
