Atiku, Obi & Ekweremadu. |
For
a very long time since the race for the presidency started, there has been a
lot of speculations that the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is not
happy with the choice of former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi as the
party’s Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and
therefore had distanced himself from all its campaigns so far.
But
in what seemed like an after-thought, the Deputy Senate President has come out
to react to rumours that he has abandoned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
stating that he is still with the party as he and others are currently working
on how to oust the All Progressive Congress in the forthcoming elections.
The
lawmaker’s commitment to PDP has been brought under doubt since the party primaries
that produced former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as running mate to
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and many believed the lawmaker is the
highest ranking politician in the South-east and so should have been consulted,
if not chosen as Mr Abubakar’s running mate, a scepticism which was further
fuelled by Mr Ekweremadu’s ‘silence’ in the media space since the primaries.
Ike Ekweremadu
took to his Facebook page this morning to bring the doubt to a conclusion with
these statements credited to him.
“My
attention has been drawn to the orchestrated attempts by some characters to
create the impression of a divided house in People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in
the coming presidential election. Such characters dish out fake and divisive
stories without source on a daily basis and attribute same to me. “While I
refuse to be distracted by such cheap blackmail, smear campaign, and extreme
propaganda, it is important to reassure our supporters that the PDP is united
and focused on wrestling power from the All Progressives Congress, APC.
He
went further:
“After
the PDP lost the presidency and majority status at the National Assembly in
2015, I made it clear that I would stand by the party, no matter what. It took
other party stakeholders and I a lot of efforts, sacrifices, soul-searching,
and painstaking negotiations to hold the party together and rebuilt it. “If I
did not abandon the PDP at its darkest hour, it does not make the slightest
sense to say that I abandoned it now that its sun is rising again,”,
Ekweremadu
added that he is working with Peter Obi and others to ensure the victory of PDP
in the elections, urging his supporters to discard the rumour of his
disloyalty.
The
post further reads: “Meanwhile, I have held separate meetings with our Vice
Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the Chairman, South East Governors Forum,
Dave Umahi, to work out strategies for the success of our party and candidates
in the coming elections and “We are also setting up a meeting of South East PDP
stakeholders by weekend to continue to strategise on the coming elections. I
have no doubt that the South East leaders will deliver the region
overwhelmingly to the PDP and I expect that other leaders will do same in their
respective geopolitical zones.
“Therefore,
I urge our supporters not to be distracted by such propaganda as we approach
the critical stages in the coming elections. We should rather focus on
delivering the votes to ensure the success of our party.”
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed on this platform as comments were freely made by each person under his or her own volition or responsibility and were neither suggested nor dictated by the owners of Precious Eze's Blog or any of their contracted staff. So we take no liability whatsoever for such comments.
Please take note!