A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ebonyi State, Comrade Chika Nwoba, has reiterated his party was very much alive in the state, saying current political events across the state as championed by its governorship candidate in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial polls, were a pointer.
This was as he opined the circumstances that threw up the PDP governorship candidate into the arena was the failure on the part of a former gubernatorial aspirant of the party, Sen. Obinnq Ogba, to keep to the zoning agreement.
Nwoba, who doubles as the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Ebonyi State, said this in a statement, titled, "Re: Behind the Demise of Ebonyi PDP", on Saturday.
He said, "The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi State Chapter has been drawn to an article published in an Abakaliki-based tabloid with the title "Behind the Demise of Ebonyi PDP written with a fictitious name. Looking at the name, it will immediately become obvious that the sponsors of the said article were not even convinced that the content was true hence the use of a fictitious and laughable name as “Halima Achi” to sign it off.
However, for the benefit of the unsuspecting public and our teeming party supporters, we shall respond as follows:
"Let us begin with the events before the actual governorship primary election of the PDP in Ebonyi in 2022. Quite long before the sales of the PDP forms, a zoning committee was constituted by the then caretaker committee of the party led by the late Elder Fred Udeogu and the chairman of that zoning committee was Senator Obinna Ogba who was at the time a serving Senator representing Ebonyi Central zone at the Senate. Of course, the governorship of the party started with the Ebonyi North zone with Sen. Dr Sam Egwu as Governor under PDP from 1999-2007.
"After his tenures, the ticket went to Ebonyi Central with Chief Martin Elechi as Governor on the platform of PDP from 2007-2015. Eight years after, the ticket went to Ebonyi South under a tempestuous circumstance and the candidate was Engr David Umahi who served from 2015-2023.
"All of these happened under PDP as the party remains the umbrella under which the state and people have refuge anytime, any day. As the eight-year tenure of Umahi drew to an end in 2023, the convention in PDP was that the ticket should go to Ebonyi North where it began earlier. Obinna Ogba coming from Ebonyi Central and being the chairman of the zoning committee couldn't punctuate that due process with outright adoption of Ebonyi North as the zone the ticket should go to.
"He instead threw it open because he was intending to pick up the ticket. All the caution we raised at the time fell on deaf ears. Obinna muscled up the process and announced that the ticket should go to the Abakaliki bloc, a political concept unknown to the PDP and Ebonyi State in particular. We have three zones in the state: North, South and Central."
He added, "There's no such a thing as Abakaliki bloc. It doesn't exist and has never been a yardstick for selecting who governs the state. But to accommodate himself in the equation, Obinna jettisoned the convention. That was the day the struggle for the soul of the party's gubernatorial ticket started.
"Going forward, Obinna Ogba started aligning and buying up most of the major stakeholders of the party to align with his zoning school of thought. He was able to buy up Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim who was at the time nurturing presidential ambition. Obinna also moved and started polarising the circus of Ebonyi North. He sponsored some party members from the zone to purchase governorship forms and he eventually succeeded in dividing the stakeholders of the zone who then started discarding the idea of ceding the ticket to North.
"Sen. Ogba and his acolytes began manifesting their hitherto hidden ambition towards the ticket. It was as if the party had become a personal estate to some cartels under the same umbrella. It was manifestly then believed that the ticket was no longer an exclusive reserve of the North, but an open market into which anyone can go and pick whatever pleased them.
"Knowing the scorecards of the desperate aspirants as they were at the time, many stakeholders and party members started agitating that High Chief Ifeanyi Odii should come to the rescue as someone who could unite the party in addition to his legendary records of philanthropy, transparency, due diligence, humility and accessibility over the years as a business mogul.
"Before the call for him to join the race, Chief Ifeanyi Odii had advocated that Ebonyi North be allowed to pick the ticket without hassles. Sen. Obinna Ogba and his men again flayed up and insisted that the ticket should be thrown open to the Abakaliki bloc. They began sponsoring some malicious articles such as this one under review against Chief Odii and his supporters. At no time did Chief Odii reply to any of their several diatribes and lies against his person. What then miffed the entire circumstance was the willful collapse of the Ebonyi North's power structure within the PDP into the structure of Ogba.
"The scenario irked many stakeholders from the South and Central zones. The call for the intervention of Chief Odii heightened since it had become apparent that the North wasn't ready to make a case for themselves then."
