Nigeria: 2023 – Why We Rejected Ekweremadu’s Demand for Guber Ticket – Enugu APC

“Ekweremadu wants to be governor but the position was not even zoned to Enugu West, but he wants to take Enugu East District’s turn. He is not a member of APC and he is demanding our ticket.

The Enugu State Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Ugochukwu Agballah, has said the party rejected pleas by former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to pick governorship ticket of the party.

Mr Agballah, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Enugu on Sunday, described the lawmaker’s demand as “evil and repugnant.”

The APC chairman explained that the party would not give Mr Ekweremadu governorship ticket because the lawmaker is not from Enugu East District, where the party had zoned its governorship ticket.

He expressed shock that the lawmaker was still putting pressure on the party to give him the ticket even after the party had elected Uchenna Nnaji as its governorship candidate.

“He is in court claiming that he was subverted during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary, but the same person is now running up and down, mobilising senators to prevail on our national chairman to subvert the Electoral Act.

“Ekweremadu wants to be governor but the position was not even zoned to Enugu West, but he wants to take Enugu East District’s turn. He is not (yet) a member of APC and he is demanding our (governorship) ticket,” he said.

“His demands portend grave danger to our political system. I will not allow desperados to come and scatter what we have laboured for,” Mr Agballah.

Mr Ekweremadu had withdrawn from the PDP governorship primaries in Enugu, just hours to the exercise citing manipulation of the delegate list by the party leadership.

A former state commissioner for finance, Peter Mbah, later emerged winner in the exercise.

Mr Mbah, hails from Owo, Nkanu East Council Area in Enugu East District.

The former deputy senate president has been in a face-off with the PDP over a zoning arrangement in the party.

While the party said it had zoned its governorship ticket to Enugu East District in obedience to the arrangement, Mr Ekweremadu insisted that there was no zoning agreement in the state.

The lawmaker, who hails from Enugu West District, had described the zoning arrangement as “political treachery.”

The PDP senator, elected since 2003, has been in the Nigerian Senate for 19 years.

Ekweremadu reacts

Reacting, the Director-General of Ikeoha Campaign Organisation (ICO), Charles Asogwa, said the APC chairman was “only venting his political frustration” on Mr Ekweremadu.

ICO is Mr Ekweremadu’s campaign Organisation.

“However, we refuse to join issues with a man suffering from exaggerated sense of self-importance,” Mr Asogwa said, without denying the allegations by the APC chairman.

Source:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *