Guber race: PDP will lose Abia if… –Group

By OUR REPORTER

As the Indepen­dent National Electoral Com­mission (INEC) released its time table for screening of party candi­dates for the 2015 general elections, a group, Abia Coalition for Good and Sustainable Governance (ACGSG) has cautioned that the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) will lose Abia if it did noth­ing to change what it de­scribed as the bunch of unelectable candidates it was presenting for the polls in the state.

The group said it was specifically worried about the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Okezie Ikpeazu, who it said available in­formation indicated he had “K-leg” emanating from discrepancies in his tax payment.

In a statement by its Coordinator, Jerome Odin­kem, ACGSG said it was unfortunate that despite representations made by well-meaning Abians and some rights groups, yet the national leadership of the PDP was hell bent on ac­cepting the candidacy of Ikpeazu notwithstanding the grave allegation of poor records of tax payment.

ACGSG said no political party in the world would toy with its electoral chanc­es the way the PDP was doing with regard to the party’s Abia gubernatorial flag bearer, stressing that the people of the state had been taken for a ride for a long time and were no lon­ger willing to be so treated.

Odinkem said, even if the PDP standard bearer had no tax issues, how the man had been received in Aba and other places he went should have sent a clear message to the leader­ship of the PDP that Ikpea­zu was not popular among the electorate and therefore could not lead the party to victory in the state in this year’s election.

“One will not know why the PDP is hell bent on hav­ing a man with such poor records of tax payment who had been booed where ever he went in the state, which is a clear indication of re­jection by the electorate, as its flag bearer, yet the party leadership is not seeing the hand writing on the wall.

“Could it be there are no other qualified Abians in PDP who could carry the banner and ensure victory for the party in the state in the forthcoming election?”

ACGSG said it was re­grettable that everything surrounding the emergence of Ikpeazu as the party’s flag bearer beginning with the party primaries had been enmeshed in contro­versies yet the party lead­ership had remained ada­mant.

The group urged the PDP to act fast or the party would pay the price of los­ing Abia State to the oppo­sition if it fielded Okezie Ikpeazu at the polls.

ACGSG stated that it was in Abia State that gov­ernment, which had failed woefully in providing the dividends of democracy to the people, would insist on foisting a candidate on Abians even when there were issues surrounding such person that made his candidature unpopular.

The group berated Abia elders for, as usual, keep­ing quite in the face of se­rious issues of this nature, stressing that their posture had been the major reason Abia had stagnated and stunted over the years.

On the issue of the re­ported disqualification of Ikpeazu and the purported request by the leadership of the PDP for Governor T. A. Orji to meet with stakeholders of the party in the state to get his replace­ment, the group faulted this.

It asked, “How could you have asked someone who was at the centre of the mess and those who kept quite while things were go­ing wrong to meet and get a replacement for the same person they brought out?

“What the PDP national leadership should do if they meant well for the state and the party was to choose among the aspi­rants, a sound candidate who will lead the party to victory in the coming elec­tion and clear the mess in the state.”

ACGSG advocated ad­equate punishment for all those involved in what it described as a show of shame over the period and commended Abians for standing firm in their re­solve to deviate from the old order and not to be tak­en back over a generation.

The group further stated that since the son of the governor, Chinedum Orji aka Ikuku, did not go for screening as stipulated by law that he should not be allowed to stand election since nobody should be seen to be above the law.

 

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