Former chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, Dr Ben Nwoye, is back to the party.
Nwoye, it could be recalled, months back announced that he has quit the ruling party.
He said then that he would make his next political destination known in record time.
He has now confirmed his return to the party.
In an interview with our correspondent on Friday, Nwoye, who is the foundation chairman of the party in the state, said he returned to rebuild the APC in the state.
His decision also comes amid the rumoured planned defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to the umbrella party.
The camp of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji and the Enugu APC Chairman, Barr Ugo Agballah is not disposed to Mbah joining the party.
However, Nwoye said it would be all joy for the APC to receive Mbah into the party soon.
According to him, “Yes, it’s true, I rejoined APC a couple of days ago. The reason is that we want to unite the party.
“It is not rumour, I am fully back, so we can end project 4,772; in the last project organised by Uche Nnaji and Ugo Agballah, they gave Tinubu 4,772 votes.
“That’s their project, they want to give him…this time around, it might be 2000 votes in 2027. We want to make sure that the presidency remains in the South, and Tinubu is the president. He will complete second tenure in 2031, and then a northern will take over”
He added that his second reason for rejoining the party is to ensure that Governor Peter Mbah joined the APC.
“My second goal is to appeal to our performing governor to join us; and join the ranks of progressives. Those are my basic goals. If we don’t bring him in, the man who got about 14,000 votes during the governorship election, who is going around deceiving people, will have fewer votes in 2027.
“In the entire Enugu he scored 14,000 votes, across 17 local government areas during the governorship election, and then you are telling people that in 2027, you will beat an incumbent governor, who scored over 160,000 votes, and then you are now saying that four years later, you will defeat him.
“So, we want to stop that nonsense; let’s tell ourselves the truth.”
On why Nnaji and Agballah are against the governor’s defection to the APC, Nwoye said the duo had taken the party as a personal project.
“It’s a project, 4772; he wants to go back as minister with another 4000 votes; that’s the reason, because they want to control appointment of federal offices, with their family members, their friends and their girlfriends, that’s what they’ve been doing, and their children.
“Go and check, Ugo Agballa’s wife is not a member of APC, did not work for APC, but she has an appointment; he used maiden name to give her appointment, as governing board member, his children too, you can run a party like that. The same thing with the minister.
“And you have an external force controlling Enugu State; a governor of another state is the one determining who will be this and who will be that in Enugu State, who will be the VC of UNN, who will be a member of board.
“We are now saying that all the appointments meant for Enugu will be decided by Enugu people and not by foreigners. We are special people, we are not afraid of anybody. They should go back and governor their state, and deal with the insecurity in their state.
“So, it is profitable for them; that’s why they don’t want the governor to come in; it is profitable to them and their cohorts, to corner employment and appointments; we are going to fight back, push back and bring the governor in,” Nwoye declared.
