Breaking…Enugu APC: Ogara’s name missing on INEC’s Updated List of Candidates

By Ikechukwu Abonyi

The name and particulars of Barr. George Ogara of Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is conspicuously missing on the updated list of candidates for the 2023 general election obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by Thisday newspaper and published on Sunday.

This is contrary to the claim by the chairman of the APC in Enugu, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, that the continued presence on INEC website of the name and particulars of Chief Robert Ngwu rather than those of Barr George Ogara as the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in Enugu was an error, which the election management would correct in an expected updated list.

Agballah’s reaction came following a protest by aggrieved members of the Enugu APC at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja, who among other weighty allegations, accused him and the governorship candidate of the party in Enugu, Chief Uche Nnaji, of “fraudulent parading of Barr. George Ogara as the party’s deputy governorship candidate whereas the name and particulars of Chief Robert Ngwu are still contained in the records and website of INEC as the real deputy governorship candidate”.

Also, a professor of Law and former Attorney-General of Imo State, Sir Francis Dike, had described the development as a fraud that could only happen in a rotten society.

Describing it as a case of impersonation and defamation, Dike, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said: “This is pure fraud and a clear case of impersonation and can only happen in a disorderly and rotten society such as ours.

But in dismissing the allegations, Chief Agballah told a national television that it was no fraud, as Ogara’s name had been forwarded to INEC, which would be reflected in the Commission’s next updated list.

However, in the the updated list of candidates based on court orders, which Thisday newspaper obtained from INEC and published on Sunday, only the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in Ogun State had its governorship candidate changed to Johnson Cyprus Okuwasegun on account of death. The rest were National Assembly candidates.

Reacting, Leader of Concerned Enugu APC Members and Chairman of Mainstream Enugu APC, Comrade Use, said the publication had further exposed the lies and fraudulent activities of Agballah and his co-travelers, who he said were bent on deceiving the Enugu electorate.

“Truth will always be truth. Ugochukwu Agballah and Uche Nnaji may deceive some people sometimes, but you cannot deceive all the people all of the time”, he said.