By Emeka Mamah
Enugu – There is tension in the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, following the crises generated by the recently concluded congresses in the party, as a factional chairman, Okey Ogbodo, at the weekend, forcefully broke into the party’s secretariat to assume office.

Onyeama

Ogbodo, who leads the faction loyal to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geofrey Onyeama, was holding a meeting of his faction at the party’s secretariat along Park Avenue, GRA Enugu at the time of this report.

Ogbodo was said to have arrived the secretariat in company of his supporters and armed operatives of Department of State Services, DSS, before taking over.

Sources told  Sunday  Vanguard that the re-elected Chairman of the APC in the state,   Dr Ben Nwoye, who had earlier scheduled a meeting of his executive at the same secretariat within the period, was advised to shelve the meeting to avert a total breakdown of law and order.

It was learned that Ogbodo had earlier petitioned against the re-election of Nwoye in the last state congress, demanding that Nwoye’s certificate of return be cancelled for him to be recognised as the authentic chairman in the state, but the three-man appeal panel from the APC national secretariat dismissed his petition for lack of merit.

Party sources said that there could have been a bloody confrontation between the Nwoye and Ogbodo factions but the leaders moved in to pacify frayed nerves in a bid to avert bloodshed   and create some atmosphere of peace   in the state, ahead of the National Convention, scheduled for  June 23, 2018.

An insider told  Sunday  Vanguard that, Onyeama’s faction was irked that none of its members, including the Minister, was named in the list released by the national convention committee for the forthcoming   national convention.

Before crossing over to the APC, this year, Ogbodo contested for the state chairmanship position of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, but lost the position to the incumbent Chairman of the party, Augustine Nnamani.