Former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, in Abia State, Chief Charles Ogbonnaya, has vowed to work with other stakeholders of the party to stop Governor Okezie Ikpeazu from imposing his kinsman, Professor Uche Ikonne, as the party’s candidate in the 2023 governorship election.
He warned that the election of a governorship candidate for the party does not rest on Ikpeazu alone, but on all stakeholders of the party who will ensure that the right thing is done.
Ogbonna who stated this in Umuahia, insisted that the alleged plot by the Governor to impose a governorship candidate from his Ngwa area will be resisted by PDP stakeholders in the state.
He said; “PDP does not belong to one person, it belongs to all of us, it is not Okezie Ikpeazu’s PDP. It is only when the process is right to produce a governor that you will be sure to have all hands on deck and make sure to win the election. But when you decide to alienate some people, you don’t listen to anybody, you have the power to put in anybody and produce a governorship candidate; it is simple, go ahead and do it, we will shoot you down by frustrating such attempt.
“Governor Okezie Ikpeazu wants to hand over to his kinsman so that they can protect him, these things cannot happen. People are not happy, not because of the zoning but because of the poor infrastructural development of the State. In the whole Abia North zone, there is no single project Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his government has been able to do in that Zone.
Ogbonnaya disclosed that besides him, major stakeholders of the party in the state are opposed to Ikpeazu’s decision to impose his kinsman as the candidate of the party and deny Abia North a chance to produce the next governor in 2023.
“I’m not a lone voice against the choice of Governor Ikpeazu to anoint his kinsman as candidate of the party even as the former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara and former Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Chief Onyema Ugochukwu. Other major stakeholders are opposed to the move to deny Abia North to produce the next Governor in 2023.”
He described individuals and groups who are paying solidarity visits to Ikpeazu as political jobbers.
