…Allegations Against Me False-Embattled Chairman
The Chairman of the Labour Party in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Hon Iziga Nwonu, has been accused of embezzling party funds and misappropriating some bags of rice meant for party faithful.
The allegation is contained in a petition by some party executives of the LGA. It was signed by Christian Eze, Acting Secretary; Felix Oforbuike Amos, Vice Chairman I, Nnadi Ifeanyi; Vice Chairman II, among others.
The petitioners gave Nwonu seven days to submit the property of the party in his possession. The petition was addressed to the national Chairman of the party, Barrister Julius Aburi, and the Secretary, Alhaji Umar Ibrahim.
It was learnt that Nwonu was in January this year impeached, and a committee constituted to reconcile the differences rocking the party. The petitioners claimed that the embattled chairman did not cooperate with the committee, adding that he ran the affairs of the party unilaterally “to pave way for his ignoble motives of embezzling the party’s funds”.
They further claimed that Nwonu could not account for the N500, 000 the party realised during the chairmanship primaries of the party, as well as the sum of N100, 000 donated to the party by Hon Dennis Agbo, former member of the House of Representatives.
The petitioners said Hon Nwonu had refused to render accounts of his stewardship as he was mandated to do within three months, adding that instead he launched a campaign of calumny against the committee to frustrate the efforts to bring him to book.
“We were tagged ‘Apapa group’ and accused of collecting N50,000 from an unknown person to fight the chairman,” the committee had alleged.
The chairman, they claimed, however, admitted owing N260,000 instead. It read in part, “When it dawned on him that we are not relenting on bringing him to account for his stewardship, he claimed that every other money we are asking from him was used to run his office and that we lack powers to investigate how such money was spent.”
According to them, the chairman also claimed “to have paid the sum of N50, 000 to engage the services of what he called ‘non conventional securities’”, adding that the chairman adopted the name as a cover-up.
On the alleged diversion of bags of rice, the petitioners claimed that “it was only the chairman that went to the venues to pick these bags of rice even when we have Welfare Officer and Organizing Secretary”.
The rice was donated by Senator Okey Ezea representing Enugu North in the Senate and Hon Dennis Agbo, erstwhile member representing Udenu/Igboeze North Federal Constituency.
They added, “An unspecified amount of money was given to the chairman to fix our party office to enable us to hold meetings there before the elections. Till today, no reason has been adduced as to the stage of work in the said office.”
They described him as “an unrepentant hypocrite, an embezzler, a bad leader, not good to be entrusted with finance and not fit to lead our great party”. They instead appointed the party Secretary, Hon Christian Eze, to run the affairs of the party.
I Remain Udenu LP Chairman – Nwonu
But reacting, Nwonu described the petition as lacking in merit.
He said, “I remain the chairman of LP, Udenu. What is being circulated is not true. The people parading the document don’t even have the capacity to impeach or suspend me. It is the Local Government Working Committee that can issue such an order on the instruction of the state chairman of the party. We held a meeting on July 1, and it went out well. We are totally in charge.”