PDP BOT Member Alerts Over Plot To Kill Him

A member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustee (BoT) and strongman of Abia politics, Prince Benjamin Apugo, has raised alarm over alleged plot to eliminate him by the Abia State government through Bakassi security operatives.

Apugo, a founding father of PDP and kinsman of Governor Theodore Orji,  told newsmen at his Umuahia country home that his sin was rating the performance of the governor very low when he hosted his Ibeku kinsmen last week and warned that the opposition in the state should not be pushed to the extent of raising their own “Bakassi.” But government has denied the charge, describing it as blackmail.

Said Apugo: “I just want to inform you of what is happening in Abia State politically which borders on threat to my life. Few days ago, Ibeku people came to my place. I made my views known to them.

“The first one was unemployment in the state. The second one was non-development of the state and the third one was the insecurity in the state, and I made them to understand that the governor, who comes from the same village with me, who I recommended to be employed in INEC as secretary, who we all helped to be governor with the intention that he will develop this state, is not doing well. He has not developed anywhere.

“After saying so to them, one of them who work with him (governor) who was present during the visit, went back and told them. The next thing we heard was a telephone call ‘we are now going to kill you.’ That was the phone call to me,” Apugo narrated. According to him,for the 33 years he has been in politics, “nobody has ever threatened me. But if it is from my home because we all helped somebody from my home to be governor that I will get the threat to be assassinated, I am waiting for them.”

“We don’t want the Governor and the government of Abia State to push some people to the wall so that they create their own Bakassi, there will be disaster in the state. Nobody plays with fire because fire burns and it burns disastrously,” the Ibeku Prince added.

He implored  PDP members who fled Abia  to Abuja for fear of being killed to return home and fight to reclaim the state in 2011.”It is true, many members of PDP are all in Abuja for fear. All of them ran away. We must have to talk to be able to bring PDP back to its position in the state. And we are not going to abuse the governor, what we are going to tell him is that he is not developing the place which is a reality,” he said.

He explained that PDP has refused to join in the state government because of its poor performance. “If he (governor) asked me to give him somebody to serve in this type of cabinet, I will not give him because people have stayed there now for two years plus and we have seen there is no stadium, there is no market, there is no Government House, there is no secretariat; there is nothing,” he said.

He said the governor acted well by banning commercial motorcycle operators from operating in some local governments in the state but pointed out he should have provided them with alternative means of livelihood. Apugo made it clear that he was not attacking the governor but was exercising his right to freedom of expression, saying “the governor is my brother.”

But Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Sam Hart, said though the government has a lot of respect for Apugo, “if indeed he made such an allegation, it would be most disappointing and unfortunate.”

“All I have to say is that Chief T.A. Orji is a governor that holds the mandate of Abians in sacred trust. He will not be blackmailed, intimidated or harassed by anybody however highly placed to mortgage the common patrimony of the people of Abia State.” Hart added.