From Seun Miracle
Engr. Austin Chima Agwuncha, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ward chairman Utuh and coordinator of all the ward chairmen in Nnewi-South LGA of Anambra State, has raised alarm over the use of police operatives in the state by a certain billionaire industrialist, Chief Akai Egwuonwu, 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.
Source: koginewsreel.blogspot.com
