APC behind Fake Rumours of NDC Zoning Senatorial/Reps Ticket to Ekwusigo – Obunike Ohaegbu

By Ifeizu Joe 

The leader of the South East Patriots and a House of Representatives hopeful on the platform of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr Obunike Ohaegbu, has urged his supporters to disregard the rumours that the NDC has zoned both the Senatorial and House of Reps tickets to Ekwusigo Local Government. Ohaegbu says the rumours were the handiwork of what he describes as the failed All Progressives Congress, APC, Government officials.

Ohaegbu, a frontline political activist, in a press release he signed, Monday, said that the NDC, as a party that believed in justice, equity and fairness, could not make the mistake of zoning both tickets to one local government out of the three that make up the constituency.

‘I’m a member of the NDC and the party has not started selling forms and that mistake cannot be made because NDC is built on equity and justice.

‘I call on my supporters to remain calm as no such decision has been taken. They should ignore such rumours. If the party had decided to run with a senatorial candidate from Ekwusigo, of course, it can’t make the mistake of also conceding the House of Reps ticket to same Ekwusigo. What happens to Nnewi North and Nnewi South? I’m from Nnewi South and we have 20 wards. How do you convince the two other local governments that the decision was just and equitable in the circumstance?’ Ohaegbu queried.

Noting that the rumours were aimed at destabilizing the NDC because it was built on equity, justice and fairness, he fingered a candidate of the APC in the zone as being behind the rumours, describing him as having performed poorly after riding on the back of the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah to go to the House of Reps last time.

‘He cannot be said to have actually performed and I don’t blame him. He was a beneficiary of the perceived injustice done to Ifeanyi Ubah. He rode on his back to go to Abuja, but, unfortunately, with Ubah’s demise, he has not done anything to show that he has appropriated that structure and he cannot point at anything that he has done. This is not to criticize him but to say that our supporters should disregard the rumours that the Senate and House of Reps tickets have been ceded to Ekwusigo.

‘There is no truth in the matter. It is probably the failed APC federal government officials that can be suggesting this. They consider the NDC as a massive threat against their initial wish that Peter Obi would be edged out in ADC so they would sweep the entire South,’ he said, noting that with Obi’s defection to NDC, the APC had pressed the panic button and were spreading all kinds of rumours.

He called on his supporters to disregard the rumour because, according to him, the NDC could not in good conscience concede the Reps and senate tickets to Ekwusigo.

‘Our federal constituency has three local government areas and with all due respect, you can’t say that Ekwusigo is the biggest. Ekwusigo has 12 wards; Nnewi South has 20 wards; and Nnewi North has more registered voters. So you cannot concede these two positions to Ekwusigo. How do you even explain this to people? Nobody who loves NDC will be suggesting this; so this must only come from the opposition who don’t want NDC to succeed.

‘In my capacity as the leader of the South East Patriots, I have always insisted that there is need for the South East to partner with the North and Obi has successfully done so by getting a strategic alignment with Kwankwaso who has the biggest organic base in the North. Obi couldn’t have gotten a better partner,’ Ohaegbu stated.

He recalled that before Obi left for the NDC, he had been adopted by the South East ADC as their leader and face of the party. Ohaegbu said that when Obi left ADC for NDC, the South East left ADC for NDC too, meaning that those in the South East championing that the South East should partner with the North also moved to NDC.

‘So these rumours are just to destabilize NDC,’ he reiterated, urging his supporters to disregard them.