A former National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr Chiedozie Ogbonnia, has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party. Ogbonnia stated that his decision was in support of Gov. Peter Mbah, who is billed to decamp to the All Progressives Congress tomorrow in Enugu.
Ogbonnia, in a release he made available to THE WHISTLER on Monday, commended Gov. Mbah for his planned defection to the APC. He stated that Enugu people had reasons to celebrate.
Quoting him, “The people of Enugu State want to demonstrate that any incumbent can command respect, loyalty, followership and legitimacy so long as he discharges creditably the functions and fulfils the roles expected of his office. Mbah has convinced the people of Enugu State that he is a visionary, a man who wills into existence that which does not exist and pursues its actualisation with zeal.”
Ogbonnia, a founding member of the PDP as well as former Director of Operations for the Alex Ekwueme Campaign Organisation (ALEPCO) in Enugu State in 1998/1999, also alleged that the PDP has been unfair to the South East.
According to him, “I have remained very passionate about PDP, but when the leadership of the PDP deliberately engages in a macabre dance or sinks its ship for filthy lucre, the followers will be expected to explore some other options.”
He recalled that, “On October 3, 2022, as the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, I reminded Alh Atiku Abubakar that Ohanaeze Ndigbo expected him to reciprocate the Igbo support to him in 2019 by throwing his weight behind the Igbo, especially the South East, for presidency in 2023. I reminded Atiku that it is the turn of the Igbo people to produce the president after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner. Apart from Atiku Abubakar, many other eminent Northerners in the PDP declared their interest in the presidency in 2019. So bad.”
He said the last of the PDP intrigues was “the treachery displayed against the candidacy of SKE Ude-Okoye, the South-East consensus candidate for the office of the National Secretary of the PDP”.
In his words, “For the PDP to ignore the position of Governor Mbah, the leader of the party in the South East, is, to say the least, very disastrous. The PDP narrative since 1999 is full of woes to Ndigbo, and in Enugu State, we say that ‘enough is enough’.”
On who replaces ex-minister Uche Nnaji, who resigned his ministerial position due to a certificate forgery scandal, Ogbonnia made a case for a person from the Greater Awgu of Enugu State.
He wrote, “I plead with His Excellency to appoint an indigene from the Greater Awgu cultural zone to fill the gap created by the exit of Chief Uche Nnaji as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Greater Awgu, comprising Aninri, Awgu and Oji River LGAs, is star-studded with enormous human capital. I am encouraged to place this request because His Excellency has, at various times, displayed a noble heart of empathy, equity, social justice and moral edifice.”
