APC – The All Progressives Congress, Enugu State chapter on Friday, gave reasons why it wanted President Muhammadu Buhari to withdraw the renomination of Mr Geoffrey Onyeama as a minister

Onyeama was among the 43 ministerial nominees the President forwarded their names to the Senate for screening and confirmation.

But addressing newsmen shortly after the State Executive Committee meeting held at the party’s secretariat, the party said its opposition to Onyeama’s renomination was in the interest of the country.

Chairman of the party, Dr Ben Nwoye, who addressed the journalists, said the decision was taken considering the antecedents and performance of the former minister.

He recalled “what he (Onyeama) did during the party’s congress, where he went ahead to conduct parallel congresses from the ward to the state level in contravention with extant laws of the party.

“Recall also that on the course of the governorship primary election, the Enugu APC chose indirect or delegate primary election, but while the election was on, the former minister stormed the place and disorganised the entire exercise; many were injured, tear-gassed and violently beaten.”

On the performance of Onyeama as former minister, Nwoye said the SEC examined his three and a half years in office and came to a conclusion that he performed below average.

“The committee looked at his general performance and found it to be woeful. As foreign affairs minister, at least 118 Nigerians were killed in South Africa, and 13 of those were extrajudicially killed by the police.

“In all of these, Onyeama has been unable to formulate policies that will address these issues.

“His underperformance came to the fore when a Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Matters was appointed, the first of its kind, and she has been diligently performing that job.

These are the reasons SEC is saying the nomination should be withdrawn and a replacement made. If it goes through, Nigerians in the Diaspora will suffer.

“We believe that Mr President did not have some of this information when he renominated him; it is our duty to bring this information to him.

“This is beyond politics; we are now in governance; we have to bring out the fact notwithstanding ethnic, political affiliations and personal relationships.

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