The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi State, southeast Nigeria, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state Friday renewed their rivalries over governance and politics.
The PDP indicted the APC-led government of running a clueless administration and said APC should prepare to leave the Government House come May 2023.
Correspondent reports that PDP in Ebonyi had their 1st state executive committee meeting on Friday during which the Chairman of PDP in the state, Tochukwu Okorie accused the APC of running a clueless and brutish government with a plan to impoverish the masses and make life difficult for residents of the state.
Tochukwu said that the defection of Governor Umahi from the PDP to the APC was a frantic experience for them as the party for the first time since 1999 became an opposition party in Ebonyi.
According to Okorie the defection of the Governor from the party marked a positive turning point as according to him, it allowed the party to liberate itself from the autocratic dispositions of the Umahi administration.
“As the party grappled with the reality of his inglorious exit, the Governor was also ferociously pursuing his nefarious plot to ensure that PDP went extinct in the state. But by your sheer determination and unfazed leadership provided by our leaders, National and State assembly, and our stakeholders, the party not only survived the onslaught but has successfully rebuilt its structures across all levels in the state.
“As a conscientious and responsible political organization, the Peoples Democratic Party has the national agenda of rescuing and rebuilding Nigeria. This agenda is even more urgent for the PDP in Ebonyi state given that our people pine away daily under the cruel and brutish administration of Governor David Umahi and his APC.
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“Today’s meeting is therefore crucial as it allows us to commence in essence the process of rescuing our people from hunger, deprivation, and bloodletting that has been their lot since 2015. The PDP in Ebonyi is poised to kick out this anti-people government so we can painstakingly reconstruct the lives of the traumatized Ebonyi people and rebuild our decayed institutions in the education and health sector’
But in a reaction, the ruling party, APC, told the PDP that it has no idea on how to be an opposition political party.
The Apc said that was why Governor David Umahi and his lead government were subject to discussion in their state executive committee meeting on 17th December 2021.
Stanley Okoro Emegha, chairman of APC in the state, while speaking to journalists on the PDP’s attack on Umahi, maintained that the PDP has no clue on how to be an opposition political party.
“It is most pathetic that Ebonyi PDP hardly gathers anywhere without mentioning the name of the governor of Ebonyi State, His Excellency, Engr Chief (Dr) Apostle David Nweze Umahi. And this is a clear indication that they have been suffering and feeling the exit of Governor Umahi from their evil enclave. I laughed at them when I read online the invectives spewed on the governor by a baby factional Chairman of the PDP in Ebonyi, Mr. Toochukwu Okorie during the meeting.
“The accusation of running a cruel and brutish government is baseless as Governor Umahi is the most democratic government in the country. His empathetic, humane and altruistic nature has endeared him to many.
Emegha wondered how the same party will win the election in 2023 when they have not recovered from the shock of Umahi’s exit from their party.
“What Ebonyi PDP should understand is that Umahi is a visionary leader and no amount of their cries would make him go back to Egypt. Umahi is that great leader an American professional speaker, Pastor John C. Maxwell talked about: he “knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”. He knew that the way to the liberation of Ndigbo is APC. He knew that connecting to the mainstream of Nigerian politics is a panacea to the marginalization of Ndigbo.
“The frustration and confusion in PDP for losing Umahi is why the party’s stakeholders have been attacking him. As a focused leader, he never got distracted but rather promised to be punishing his detractors with gigantic projects in the interest of all Ebonyians, and he has kept to his promise.
“Essentially, Umahi is the one who collapsed PDP in the country. Immediately he left the party as the pillar, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River joined him. Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state joined, too. So many National Assembly Members and State Assembly Members in different states equally defected. They all defected with their teeming supporters.
“I, therefore, enjoin the good people of Ebonyi state to disregard any accusation coming from Ebonyi PDP against our award-winning governor, as the PDP has gone into oblivion”, he said.
