Ruling APC suspends chairman over corruption and diversion of Christmas rice
- The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ha suspended the Delta North chairman of the party
- He was suspended for misappropriating Christmas rice meant for the party members in the entire senatorial district
- But the chairman, George Okafor, denied the accusation, saying those who suspended him were already serving their suspension, hence they cannot suspend him
For allegedly misappropriating Christmas rice meant for party members and other anti-party activities, the Delta North chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), George Okafor, has been suspended.
The suspension was slammed on the chairman through a letter signed by the chairmen and secretaries of the nine local government areas in the senatorial district of the state.
APC National chairman, Odigie Oyegun and Muhammadu Buhari
Besides allegations of misappropriating Christmas rice, he is also accused of collecting the sum of N10,000 from each of the nine council areas as cost of transporting the rice to the local government secretariats of the party.
In the letter made available to journalists in Asaba, the Delta state capital, Okafor is said to have abused his office and the trust reposed on him by the members of the party in the senatorial district.
The letter dated February 6, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Asaba, was jointly signed by eight out of the nine chairmen and six out of the nine secretaries of the local government executives.
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They alleged that the senatorial chairman short-changed the various local government area executives by holding on to four bags of rice while also allegedly collecting N10,000 from each of the local government area for the purpose of transporting the bags of rice.
National Chairman of APC, John Odigie Oyegun
But in a swift reaction, Mr. Okafor dismissed his purported suspension, saying that those who were suspending him were already serving their indefinite suspension from party members in their various local government areas for misappropriating the 20 bags of rice each that were given to them for onward distribution during the Christmas celebration.
Okafor said his sin was that he endorsed the suspension order slammed on the embattled chairmen and secretaries by members of the party at the local government level.
Chairman of the party in Oshimili south local government area, Ogbueshi Ben Onwuka who read the suspension letter at the end of a stakeholders' meeting in Asaba said Mr. Okafor is not fit to continue to pilot the affairs of the party in Delta north.
"Chief George Okafor in his usual game of short changing, only gave out 20 bags of rice to the Delta north LGAs and concealing four bags from each to himself, amounting to 36 bags of rice and equally collected the sum of N10,000.00 from each LGA for rice transportation and alternatively seized a bag of rice from any LGA who could not afford the money.
"Importantly, his failure to refund the concealed bags of rice and the money forcefully collected led to our resolution that he is not fit to pilot the affairs of APC Delta north in relation to strong party loyalists," the letter read in parts.
Ruling APC logo
"Aside being habitual short changer, Chief George Okafor is proven to be working for the PDP and has recently collected good money from PDP to cause serious crisis in the Delta north APC structure.
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“At the moment, he is very busy creating/inaugurating parallel LGA executives in all the nine local government areas in order to ensure that APC in Delta north senatorial district would not be able to actively participate in the forthcoming Delta state local government elections, which is contrary to our party constitution.
"So, such a political self-aggrandizer and gambler must not be allowed to destroy our party structure and deny us long expected political fortunes.
“It is important to remind you that on the 2nd of November, 2014, the Delta north senatorial members took a similar resolution against Chief George Okafor for his fund misappropriation and we were begged to overlook that and he was given a chance to change but he has remained unrepentant," the chairman noted.