Ikpeazu supporters abandon PDP in favor of APC in Abia
On Monday, supporters of the All Progressives Congress replaced the “moribund” Peoples Democratic Party in Abia State, which was led by Okezie Ikpeazu, the state’s most recent governor.
The former governor’s chief of staff, Anthony Agbazuere; a former commissioner for information and strategy, Eze Chikamnayo of Umunneochi; a former commissioner for public utilities, Chief Eze Nwanganga; a former commissioner for the Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, Chief Uzo Ihuka; a former chairman of ASOPADEC, and a former commissioner representing Abia State in the Niger Delta development commission are among the defectors.
Prior to the APC’s scheduled Tuesday zonal caucus meeting, which will be presided over by the party’s national welfare secretary, Hon. Donatus Nwankpa, and minister of state for labor and employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, they left their previous party during an APC stakeholders’ meeting in Umunneochi.
At the APC stakeholders meeting, which was called at the minister’s request at her rural home of Isuochi, Abia State, their departure from the PDP was revealed, causing controversy among the opposition party in the state.
Several prominent PDP members from the state’s 17 local government districts and three senatorial districts, as well as a mainstay of the party from Obingwa Local Government Area, Elder Godwin Nna, are among the other decampees.
The controversy intensified when their defection occurred less than three weeks after an alleged PDP caucus meeting in Abia State, which was allegedly held at Okezie Ikpeazu‘s home in Umuobiakwa, Obingwa country. It was speculated that this meeting was a part of Ikpeazu and other PDP members’ strategic plan to either reclaim their lost power in the state from the ruling Labour Party, or to previously join the APC.
Though the immediate past governor’s camp has stayed silent over the large number of its members defecting from the PDP, some have indicated that Agbazuere and others joining the APC will signal the long-awaited defection of former Governor Ikpeazu to the APC, a source informed South-East PUNCH.
In contrast, PDP members joining the APC indicates that Abians have begun to recognize and accept the APC as the alternative party that they must support in order to advance not only their political goals but also the essential change that the state and its people long for, according to APC National Welfare Secretary Hon. Nwankpa in a phone interview.
Simply said, it’s reintegration and realignment in politics. It’s a component of the revolution in politics. The APC will be strengthened even more by their arrival. They guaranteed to offer followership and value. They stated that they believed they had a lot to give, that they wanted to be a part of the national grid, and that they thought the APC was the party that could solve the Abia crisis. We’re becoming stronger.
