Engr.
Austin Chima Agwuncha, the APGA party chairman of Utuh ward and coordinator of
all the ward chairmen in Nnewi-South Local Government Area of Anambra State,
has raised alarm over the use of police operatives in the state by a certain
billionaire industrialist to intimidate him into silence over party funds
allegedly meant for Osumenyi ward 1 and ward 2 respectively.
Agwuncha who spoke to this journalist
exclusively after his second invitation to Zone 13 police headquarters Ukpo,
Dunukofia Local Government Area, said he was invited to Zone 13 on account of a
petition written against him that he defamed the character of the said
billionaire industrialist by addressing him with all manner of derogatory
remarks.
He recalled that a meeting was held on August
11, this year where Osumenyi APGA members raised an objection that certain
funds which were supposed to get to them during the Anambra-South senatorial
by-election didn't get to them.
He said he raised a motion for the said funds to
be recovered and given to Osumenyi ward 1 and ward 2. Soon after, he got a
letter of invitation to Zone 13 police headquarters Ukpo to explain why he
accused the persona of withholding party funds.
Agwuncha told this journalist that the state and
national leadership of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were aware of
the development but they were also not aware that he has been dragged to Zone
13 police headquarters Ukpo because he insisted that Osumenyi ward 1 and ward 2
should get what is due to them.
Agwuncha who has been asked to appear at Zone 13
police headquarters Ukpo on Monday August 31st for the third time, maintained
that the police has been lenient with him in the course of interrogations
contrary to the petitioner's intent of using the authorities to intimidate him
into silence.
Meanwhile the APGA chairman of Nnewi-South Local
Government Area, Hon. Azubuike Osuchukwu, who described the situation as
political intimidation, said he would not keep quiet but fight it to the last
because Hon. Austin Chima Agwuncha has mandate of the party to demand
whereabouts of funds meant for the party.
Osuchukwu said he was the Secretary of the
campaign committee for APGA in Nnewi-South during the senatorial by-election
and he could recall vividly what transpired then. According to him, APGA
Nnewi-South Local Government must be liberated from the captivity of predators
who parade themselves as stakeholders.
Also in their separate interviews, Hon.
Chiagozie Udenna, APGA chairman Osumenyi ward 2, Hon. Cyprain Ilechukwu , Osumenyi
APGA ward 1 chairman as well as Mr. Onyeka Onukwuzie, an APGA chieftain from
Osumenyi town, corroborated the fact that Osumenyi APGA ward 1 and ward 2 were
shortchanged because the funds that were supposed to get to them were
intercepted on transit.
They said they were all living witnesses and are
ready to testify anywhere that they were shortchanged and funds meant for them
diverted by the persona who they described as marauding predator.
Efforts to speak with the said billionaire
industrialist to respond to the accusations and allegations levelled against
him proved unsuccessful as the industrialist threatened to use the police
against the journalist, if he published the report of his investigation.
Post a Comment