- Party woos Ikpeazu, Umayi, Obiano, Obi, others
- It’s a wishful thought, says PDP
Despite the internal wrangling and some defections that hit the ruling All Progressives Congress recently, findings have shown that the party is focused on capturing the South-East.
The move, according to political experts, is crucial to ensuring a convincing win for President Muhammadu Buhari come 2019, more so as the ruling party has been encountering hostilities in its in-roads into the region.
We want to start early; we want to strategise early; we want to plan early; we want to be confident that after we have done our field work, the reward from the field work is commensurate with the efforts that we have put in
Sources in the party confirmed to our correspondent that the party’s National Working Committee had contacted its chapters in the five states across the zone on plans and new strategies to adopt, in ensuring that the APC captures the zone.
According to them, the immediate past national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had instructed the state chairmen of the party in the East to ensure everything possible to win the state for the party in 2019. It was also gathered that the party’s leadership had decided to vote special funds to boost the party’s political activities in the state, in order to achieve their dream.
Meanwhile, Oyegun recently told our correspondent that the party would not leave any stone untouched in the South-East, ahead of 2019.
“We want to start early; we want to strategise early; we want to plan early; we want to be confident that after we have done our field work, the reward from the field work is commensurate with the efforts that we have put in. I want to be partisan here; we want a situation where we will win handsomely in the South-East,” the party’s former national chairman said.
ABIA: PARTY WORKING ON IKPEAZU
Though the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has remained resolute in his bid to ensure the state does not slip from his party, findings also revealed that the unexpected might occur before the next general election in 2019, as a former governor of the state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, had reportedly been instructed to deliver both the governor and the state to the APC in due course.
As a result, Kalu and other stakeholders in the party have not ceased to woo the state governor, alongside other stalwarts of the PDP, in a bid to make them cross over to the APC, investigations revealed.
A chieftain of the APC in Abia, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, told our correspondent that the party was receiving federal backing “now, more than in the past”, to ensure that the state is delivered in the coming presidential and National Assembly elections.
He also expressed the optimism that the party would succeed in its move to make Governor Ikpeazu cross over to the APC.
“More than ever, we have been galvanised to deliver the state in the coming general election. Abia is very important to Mr. President’s coming back and we cannot afford not to deliver,” he stressed.
EBONYI GOV ALREADY CAPTURED?
Meanwhile, it is believed that the APC has already captured Ebonyi State, especially following the President’s meeting with major political stakeholders in the state during the last Anambra State governorship election.
Already, the Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Dave Umahi, has reportedly begun tacit campaigns for Buhari’s re-election. Observers contend that from all indications, Umahi has been captured and that it’s only a matter of months for him to officially defect to the APC.
Reacting on the Federal Government’s determination to woo the South-East over to Buhari, National President of APC Youth League, Mr Solomon Faeren, said that the party would fulfill its mission of winning the entire eastern zone in 2019, to enable it consolidate on its programmes for the region.
Also speaking, an APC chieftain in Ebonyi, Mr. Christian Chukwu, said that the party was determined to dislodge the PDP in the region.
He alleged that the state’s ruling party was intimidating and harassing APC members, but stressed that no amount of intimidation could deter them from achieving their mission.
“Our members are being harassed and intimidated but they have not succumbed. The youths of Ebonyi are not going to succumb. When you watch the way they are not succumbing, it is a clear sign that they want to take what belongs to them,” Chukwu said.
OBI, OBIANO UNDER RADAR
As for Anambra State, there are indications that the APC leadership has set about moves to resolve the raging dispute between Peoples Democratic Party’s former governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, and his successor and ex-godson from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Governor Willy Obiano.
“But the first task is to see how we can get Obi into the APC, knowing how highly respected he is in both Anambra and the entire Igboland,” said a top APC member in Awka, the Anambra State capital, who revealed the secret move but chose to be anonymous because of its sensitive nature.
Recently, however, Obi conducted a humanitarian tour of some grassroots communities in Nasarawa State, during which the state governor, Tanko Al-Makura, reportedly conferred with him over the need to cross over to the APC.
But reacting to insinuations that Obi was set to dump the PDP for the APC, his media spokesman, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, said, “No, nothing of the sort.”
IT’S A WISHFUL THOUGHT-PDP
Meanwhile, a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Dr. Charles Omini, while speaking on APC taking over the South-East, insisted that the latter could not in any way capture the zone.
Omini argued that Buhari’s administration had already justified what he would get in the 2019 general election, “going by his poor treatment of the Igbo people in the affairs of this country.”
According him, Buhari’s administration has remained a disaster to the region, which has not benefited anything from him.
Omini said, right from 1999, the South-East had been a PDP zone, “until a few mistakes were made, which led to the taking over of two states by other political parties.” He was referring to APGA taking over in Anambra and APC, Imo State.
He, however, said with the abysmal performance of President Buhari’s government, it would be an easy ride for the PDP in 2019.
“Within the last three years, all has not been well with Nigeria; we ended up having a situation where we put a bad tyre in a new vehicle. We delivered our mandate to a party that has now unleashed killer Fulani herdsmen on all of us; a party that has taken the country 60 per cent backward.
“They thrive in making the people of this country suffer and that is why, as we speak, they have plans to even make a litre of fuel N300. This is a government that claimed it came to fight corruption but look at all the indices, including the report from the Transparency International. They have failed in all areas – economy, security, anti-corruption.
“So, with the mandate we have, and the capable hands we are inaugurating in our party, the APC will not exist in the South-East beyond 2019. Let us consolidate on the campaigns our noble party men and women have already done for us, which is over 80 per cent,” he said.
In the same vein, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiya, said, “APC’s mission to capture the South-East is a dream that cannot come true. What do they have to win the Zone? Instead, they will lose more zones in the country. The party is doomed already. Just wait a bit and see what will be their end.”
