The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has appointed Senator Victor Udoma-Egba to replace the secretary of the Convention Planning Committee, Sen. Benjamin Uwajumogu who resigned his appointment due to what he said were “domestic” reasons beyond his control.
The national convention of the APC is scheduled for June, 23.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said the party hierarchy had since accepted the resignation of Sen. Uwajumogu. He dismissed reports that the former secretary was forced to resign as a way of acquiescing to the demands of his state governor, Rochas Okorocha who had threatened to dump the ruling party should his request for a new Scribe be turned down.
“It is not a tradeoff. To the best of my knowledge, the reasons he gave were personal and the National Working Committee NWC has appointed somebody else, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba. I do not know how that can be a tradeoff because if it is so, I think his replacement should have been another person from Imo but the new appointee is from Cross River”, said Mallam Abdullahi.
There were speculations Friday night that Uwajumogu had tendered his resignation, but confirming the development at a news conference Saturday in Abuja, the senator said when he accepted the appointment, he had believed that the Convention would hold on May 14, saying the new date of June 23 would clash with his long term ambition to attend the graduation of two of his children from universities in England.
“I want to announce to you that yesterday, I tendered my resignation as the Secretary of the APC Convention Planning Committee and the resignation was accepted last night by the national chairman of the party”, he said. Speaking further, he said; “The reason why I resigned, primarily is that when I was appointed, the date for the national convention, as we were informed, was to be on May 14. Eventually that date was moved to June 2 and there were hopes that the Convention would hold between June 2 and 9.
However, the date has now been moved to June 23 and it will conflict with my family activities and responsibilities. For example, two of my children are graduating from the university in England within this month and I have a responsibility to be there and I have some other jobs at Hans too. So, I decided that since I wont have the time for this convention, I should resign so that the position can be given to somebody who has the time.
It is a decision that I took by myself. In my letter thank the national chairman and the Convention committee for all the support I received while I was here”, he said.
