By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Former aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari and chieftain of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Barr. Okoi Obono-Obla had declared his readiness for any show down from the chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Cross River State, Barr Alphonsus Ogar, whom Obono-Obla claimed threatened to have him disciplined for daring to call for his removal as party chair.
Obono-Obla made the remarks while commenting on the issue during an interactive session with our correspondent in Calabar yesterday.
Obono-Obla had in a letter dated September 9, 2024 and addressed to the governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, called for suspension of the chairman of the APC in the state, Ogar, for daring to make statements which Obono-Obla alleged were inciting against the leadership style of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies on the social media space.
Obono-Obla averred that making such comments on the social media space about the President’s economic policies and hunger situation in the country amounts to inciting Nigerians to rise up against Mr. President.
But on the contrary, Ogar had alleged that Obono-Obla’s letter to the governor advocating his suspension as party helmsman was abnormal, as the letter is likely to bring disdain and disrepute to his person as state party chairs.
He alleged that Obono-Obla had no right or justification to carry out such advocacy for his suspension, wondering what could have given Obono-Obla the temerity to seek for his suspension.
But in a swift reaction to Ogar’s comments, Obla threatened to approach the court to kick Ogar out of the party secretariat for daring to make deriding comments against him, even when he knows that he has no clean financial records to showcase when called to do so during accountability as he had ran the party as an emperor.
He enumerated Ogar’s wrong doing to include factionalization, violation of party rules, stifling of party’s internal democracy, diversion of 800 out of the 1000 bags of rice meant for the vulnerable to his cronies.
Obono-Obla called on Ogar to account for 10,000 bags of rice that he received from the Federal Government for the vulnerable people in the state.
He said, “I am waiting for Ogar to discipline me. You can see his pseudo-democratic, dictatorial, oppressive and intimidatory mindset.
“Ogar threatened to discipline me for expressing my opinion on matters concerning the party.”
Resorting to the use of derogatory, insulting and gutter language to belittle me or obfuscate the fundamental issues, I had raised in my letter to the governor, is a reflection of their poor home training.
“I have taken it upon myself to be an advocate to speak up against dictatorship, oppression, chicanery, feudalism, retrogression and deviation from the progressive credentials of the APC, being perpetrated by the present state exco, and nothing would deter me.
“When we were founding the APC in 2013, where were these charlatans and opportunists?Threatening to discipline me would not deter me from speaking out.”
Effort to reach out to Ogar, a.k.a Chattered Orator, failed as his telephone line was said to be switched off as of the time of filing this report.
Although Ogar had earlier denied any wrong doing, alleging that Obono-Obla is seeking for his suspension out of frustration from not having his way in the yet to be conducted forthcoming local government elections which Obla may have hatched plans to manipulate the process to favour an aspirant of his choice.
