He said the convention in which Sowore was purportedly expelled and Nzenwa announced was a ‘kangaroo arrangement” by those hell-bent on hijacking the party.
The Lagos State Chapter of the African Action Congress (AAC) says Omoyele Sowore remains the leader the party recognizes and that it will not recognize Leonard Nzenwa as the national chairman of the party.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Elias Ozikpu, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
He was reacting to the reported sacking of Sowore as the national chairman by a convention of the party on August 9 in Owerri and the subsequent naming of Nzenwa as the new chairman.
Sowore, also the presidential candidate of the party in the February 2019 election and 28 others were reportedly expelled for alleged anti-party activities and insubordination at the convention.
The AAC presidential candidate is currently being held in connection with the recent #RevolutionNow protests, he organized.
Nzenwa, while speaking after the convention, condemned the #RevolutionNow protests by Sowore and others, saying AAC did not sanction them.
But Ozikpu described Nzenwa as an impostor, asserting that Sowore remains the AAC national chairman.
He said the convention in which Sowore was purportedly expelled and Nzenwa announced was a ‘kangaroo arrangement” by those hell-bent on hijacking the party.
Ozikpu pointed out that Nzenwa had earlier been expelled from the party at a recent convention in Abuja.
He explained further, ”Nzenwa is not the chairman of the party. We don’t recognize him in Lagos AAC and genuine members of the party don’t recognize him as chairman.
”Our chairman remains Mr. Omoyele Sowore and that is the leader we all know. Nzenwa is just an impostor, who wants to hijack the party and that is why he and others went to Owerri to announce the expulsion of Sowore.
"But the questions to ask are: why Owerri? Is Owerri the headquarters of the party? Who and who were at the so-called convention where he was announced as chairman? The whole thing was a kangaroo arrangement.
”We had our national convention recently in Abuja and the same Nzenwa was expelled by the party while a vote of confidence was passed on Sowore. So Nzenwa can’t claim to be national chairman.
”The national secretary of the party is putting a disclaimer in newspapers to counter Nzenwa’s claim. He is not our chairman and we don’t recognise him.”
Ozikpu urged members to keep faith with the party and remain loyal to Sowore despite his current travail.
He described AAC as the party of the people with the main objective of having a country that will work for all.