Enugu Guber: Attack On Ekweremadu Shows PDP Weakness, Says Nwoye

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Friday, March 18th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Immediate past chairman of the Enugu State Chapter of the ruling All Progressive Congress, Dr. Ben Nwoye has said the ongoing attack on the declaration of the Ex- Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu to contest for gubernatorial election in 2023 is a show of weakness by members of his the people’s Democratic party PDP.
There had been series of attacks on the lawmaker who represents Enugu West Senatorial district by various groups within the PDP since he declared his intention to contest the Governorship position.
“The attack on Senator Ekweremadu is a show of weakness from people attacking him” Nwoye said.
According to the APC Chieftain, “if the people attacking him have better Program, they should channel those programs and show why they are better than Senator Ike Ekweremadu and not to attack him.
Nwoye who Spoke to Newsmen Thursday in Enugu, condemned such attack on the former Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament, saying there is nowhere in the constitution where anyone could be barred from contesting election whether zoning or no zoning.
Our Correspondent reports that Ekweremadu’s declaration has heated up Enugu Politics, as some politicians and groups within the PDP are insisting on maintaining the Governorship zoning arrangement, which they say favors Enugu East Senatorial zone.
But, Ekweremadu, has dismissed the zoning arrangement claims, saying as far as he is concerned, there is no such arrangement in the state.
Nwoye who expressed support to the zoning agreement in the state said “I’m for zoning because it has brought peace, equity and fairness in Enugu state, but zoning does not prevent anyone from running for an election, there are other factors that prevent someone from running and not zoning.
“When zoning is done in any political party, the best thing is to appeal to those that are not from the zone where the position is zoned to, ask them to drop their ambition for peace and fairness, you don’t threaten, you don’t force them to drop their ambition
“For instance APC has zone the governorship seat to Enugu East Senatorial district and I stand by that zoning, even when people come to talk about the issue of competence.
“But I believe that every zone has competent people, so, we just need to choose right
I gave my support to zoning during the rally organised by Enugu East, not because I’m for PDP but because it’s fair, because we started the zoning with Enugu East in 1999, then to Enugu West and to Enugu North .
“So, it ought to go back to Enugu East and the people of Enugu East has appealed to other aspirants from Enugu West and North to support Enugu East so that we can continue to enjoy fair distribution.
“But unfortunately there are others who believe they have capacity to run and they have constitutional right to run but what we see is people attacking them, specifically Senator Ike Ekweremadu does not deserve the type of attack that some people in PDP are given him.
“One bad thing they said is that there was an agreement and they start flying papers but they should understand the meaning of agreement, what did you give him to agree for that because there must be exchange of something
“The Enugu East people ought to send a delegation to Senator Elweremadu and plead with him to allow Enugu East to go but for the fact that they are attacking him means it has all it takes to contest, he said
Meanwhile, the Ekweremadu’s Ike Oha campaign organization led by a Commissioner for Housing in the state, Chief Ogbo Asogwa has said no amount of intimidation, harassment and forgeries will make the lawmaker jettison his ambition.