The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Monday picked the nomination form of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to enable him to vie for the party’s ticket to fly its flag in the 2023 governorship election in Abia State.
Abaribe, had on Monday, 27th December, 2021 declared his interest to contest the Abia 2023 governorship election.
Mr Abaribe made his interest known at a civic reception organised in his honour by Nzuko Ahiaba La Abayi, a sociocultural organisation in Ahiaba in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state.
He expressed his readiness “to serve and to deliver more dividends of democracy to the people.”
“As an Igbo man, I respect constituted authority. I believe the number one citizen of the state should know, and I have paid him that respect.
“I have let him know and by extension, the people of Abia, and I am telling the people of Abia to look forward to seeing me in charge in Abia state come 2023,” he said.
Mr Abaribe said it was time for the residents of Abia to make choices that would facilitate enhanced socio-economic development in the state.
He expressed gratitude to God for divine guidance and thanked his constituents for organising a civic reception in his honour.
“This is a special occasion. I have been in politics since 1998. I have been in and out of politics and even gone to DSS custody because of Nigeria.
“This is the first time a civic reception is being organised for me.
“This occasion is significant because it is coming from my ancestral home and shows that they are saying that they are proud of my antecedents, achievements and that I deserve a title,” he said.
Hotmedia.ng learnt that Abaribe,67, is from the same Obingwa local government area as Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
2023: PDP ‘ll lose Abia if Ngwa man flies guber ticket, Wabara warns
. Insists power must shift to Ukwa or Abia North.
. Says party should learn from national PDP on zoning
Former Senate President, and the Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, BoT, Dr. Adolphus Wabara, has warned that PDP might get a protest vote in Abia in 2023, should the party fail to cede its governorship ticket to his Ukwa clan or Abia North zone.
He argued that if Ukwa clan should not be considered because it belongs to Abia South senatorial zone where power currently resides, “then power should move back to Abia North where it started from in 1999”.
Wabara specifically warned that any attempt to make another Ngwa man succeed the incumbent Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who is also an Ngwa man would be counterproductive for PDP.
The former Senate President who said he was raising the alarm because of his love for PDP, advised Abia PDP leadership not to toy with the Abia Charter of Equity and zoning arrangement for which the party is known.
He said that anything short of allowing power to come to Ukwa or rotate back to Abia North in 2023 would spell doom for PDP.
Wabara predicted that Abia might fall for the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, should PDP fail to do the right things and on time too.
He advised Abia PDP to borrow a leaf from the party’s national leadership which recently approved to set up a 37-man committee on zoning so as not to jeopardize its electoral fortunes in 2023.
” Zoning is an integral part of PDP. Abia PDP should learn from our national party and respect zoning.
” Our party shall not be doing the right thing at the centre and here somebody will be acting with impunity.
” No single person has the authority to decide the next governor of the state. The party caucus, elders and stakeholders will have to meet.
“Gov. Ikpeazu’s successor may be micro zoned to the Governor but that should only happen after the right thing has been done in line with the constitution of our great party which is macro zoning to Ukwa or Abia North.
” I’m saying this because of my love for our great party PDP which of course enjoys a large followership in Abia. But if the PDP leadership doesn’t do the right thing, the party will get a protest vote in 2023.
” Abians will vote PDP 85% but if the governorship ticket is not ceded to Ukwa or Abia North in line with power rotation arrangement, there will be a protest vote.
” Abia is not ready for Ngwa back to back thing. What they are doing now is exactly why PDP lost Plateau State to APC in 2015. Ukwa or Abia North should produce Ikpeazu’s successor”, Wabara cautioned.
The immediate past Governor of the state and Senator representing Abia Central, Senator Theodore Orji, had penultimate week also declared his total support for power shift to Abia North.
Senator Orji had warned that anybody working against power rotation arrangement which is in tandem with the Abia Charter of Equity would be embarking on a dangerous political voyage.
Similarly, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa who represented Abia North in the eighth senate had advocated the return of power to the zone, saying it would help to engender peace and mutual trust.
The immediate past-Secretary to the State Government SSG, Dr. Eme Okoro, has championed the campaign for power shift to Abia North vowing to resist any attempt to shortchange the zone of its turn to preside over the affairs of the state.
Despite several voices in favour of the power shift to Abia North in 2023, the Ngwa Council of Elders led by Dr. Max Nduaguibe, is, however, vehemently opposed to the agitation, insisting that the Ngwa clan in Abia Central will take over from Ikpeazu.
A number of PDP chieftains from Abia North have also confided in Vanguard that they would sabotage the party’s interest should PDP deny Abia North it’s governorship ticket in 2023.
