By NewsCritic Reporters
The loss of Abia State governorship seat to the Labour Party, LP, has put the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in disarray after it held sway in the state for 16-years. The PDP’s defeat has relegated the party to an opposition platform and also causing discontent among party members and stakeholders, who are quick to blame the former governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu for the party’s misfortune.
According to party chieftains who spoke to this reporter on condition of identity protection, Okezie Ikpeazu’s intransigence and bastardization of the zoning formula within the PDP was responsible for the party’s defeat, coupled with his lack lustre performance as two-term governor of Abia State.
The reality on ground shows that the PDP stakeholders are now consigned politically, while others are already defecting to the ruling Labour Party in the state in in a bid to remain relevant. All these scenarios they blame on Ikpeazu who is said to be regretting his actions and inactions that culminated to the party’s ouster in the 2023 General Election.
Already, crisis has erupted in the party with a group calling for the removal of the state chairman of the party, Hon Alwell Asiforo Okere because of his failure to deliver the party at the last election. The truth is that it was Ikpeazu that failed to deliver the party, said a stakeholder.
Investigations by NewsCritic online revealed that the target of the group demanding for the removal of the party’s chairman is Ikpeazu, knowing that removing the chairman is an indirect indictment and no-confidence vote on Ikpeazu, who also lost in his bid to retire to the senate chambers of the National Assembly after his abysmal performance as governor.
Sources disclosed that Ikpeazu is sulking and unhappy, regretting that he failed PDP by fielding unpopular candidates against wise counsel even by the elders. The sources said that the death of Prof Uche Ikonne, was enough to make him change gear and do the needful, and yet he was too carried away with the prospect of having Ngwa candidate replace him as governor in clear contravention to the zoning arrangement practised in the state.
Today Ikpeazu and his PDP are the big losers, and with the ongoing probe by the Judicial Panel of Inquiry established by the Governor Alex Otti led government, his image is at stake, said a PDP stakeholder. He reasoned that all the things that were difficult for Ikpeazu to do as governor are now being done by Alex Otti with ease, including payment of salaries and pensions to all categories of the state workforce.
Ikpeazu’s worries were said to have exacerbated following the vandalization of his palatial home at Umuobiakwa-Obingwa by miscreants. It was gathered that the vandals have made a mess of his mansion despite the security presence. It is generally believed that those behind this act must be members of his environment. As one stakeholder puts it “that is a clear indication that he has lost the goodwill even among his people”.
Sources further disclosed that the former governor is battling to ensure that he wasn’t called to account for his deeds as governor either by the EFCC or by the LP controlled state government.
Meanwhile the Abia PDP said its attention has been drawn to a malicious news item circulating on social media, wherein an unrecognised organisation named Abia PDP Network Movement called for the resignation of the State Chairman of the Abia PDP, Rt. Hon. Dr. Alwell Asiforo Okere, because he could not deliver the Party in the last general election.
The Abia PDP noted that it would not have bothered to respond to the impudence of the so-called group if not that it made some unfounded allegations against the person of the PDP Chairman, which should be corrected.
The party in a statement said Asiforo Okere delivered all the PDP candidates in his polling unit, ward and constituency “and we challenge those calling for his resignation to produce the election results of their polling units, Wards, State constituencies and National Assembly for comparison.
“As a law-abiding corporate citizen, the Abia PDP would refrain from commenting on the sealing of the Abia PDP Secretariat because the matter is sub-judice as it is currently before the Judicial Panel of Inquiry instituted by the Abia State government.
