All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Benue South in the 2023 election, Comrade Daniel Onjeh, has petitioned the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party over anti-party activities perpetrated by the state chairman, Austin Agada, during last year’s legislative election in the state.
Onjeh who submitted the petition at the secretariat of the party also demanded immediate suspension and subsequent investigation of the state chairman also over the anti-party activities.
The petition was contained in a 13-page document dated January 22, 2024, made available to our correspondent. It was entitled “Petition against anti-party activities by the Benue State APC Chairman and others, targeted at my candidature and addressed to the APC NWC, through the National Chairman.”
He further claimed that the Benue State APC Chairman and his acolytes rigged the 2023 senatorial election in Benue South in Favour of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and current Senate Minority Leader, Senator Patrick Abba Moro.
“It explains why despite winning three out of the four House of Reps seats in Benue South during the last general elections, the APC still lost both the senatorial and the presidential elections to the opposition.
“If you care to research the history of elections in Nigeria, you will discover that it has never happened in any other election aside the 2023 general elections in Benue South where a particular party won three out of four House of Reps seat in a senatorial district, and yet lost the senate,” Onjeh stated in the petition.
The former Chairman of the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, Governing Board also alleged that Agada, who took to national television to disparage some Idoma elders and elite for advocating equity during nominations for ministerial appointments, accusing them of anti-party activities, was actually the “chief priest” and “lead culprit” of anti-party in the Benue State APC.
Enumerating Agada’s anti-party activities, Onjeh accused him of sourcing funds from APC stalwarts at the state and national levels under the guise of party funding, only to fund opposition parties and opposition candidates.
He claimed that he held a series of meetings with APC structures and stakeholders across the nine local governments of Benue South prior to the 2023 general elections and directed them to work for Moro of the PDP, and deliberately withheld election-day logistics in order to frustrate the efforts of genuine party agents.