EBONYI STATE PDP CAUCUS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPLAUDS THE ADOPTION OF PROF. ONYEBUCHI CHUKWU AS CONSENSUS CANDIDATE BY UNWU-EKUMENYI KINDRED. Being a press briefing jointly made in Abakaliki on 12th Nov., 2014 by the member representing Ikwo/Ezza South Federal constituency in the National Assembly, Hon. Tobias Okwuru (KSM), and the member representing Ebonyi/Ohaukwu Federal constituency in the National Assembly, Hon. Peter Oge Ali Our attention has been drawn to a report making the rounds in the media in which Hon. Linus Okorie was credited with a statement to the effect that members of Ebonyi State PDP caucus in the House of Representatives have rejected the alleged imposition of a former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, as the 2015 governorship candidate for the state”. The report further alleged that “the five-member caucus which addressed journalists at the National Assembly, said ‘the governor assembled a hand-picked group of persons under the guise of the Old Abakaliki Bloc and unilaterally announced the former health minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, as the consensus governorship candidate for the PDP’ ”. Hon. Okorie concluded by referring to Mr. Joseph Onwe as the Acting Chairman of PDP in Ebonyi State. A bunch of lies like these frivolous allegations credited to Hon. Okorie (which he is yet to deny) should be totally ignored and consigned to the trash bin, but for the benefit of posterity and the general public whom these fabrications were designed to deceive, We are compelled to set the records straight as follows:- 1. We did not address journalists in the National Assembly over any issue connected to the on-coming 2015 Ebonyi governorship election. The publication was therefore a total fabrication which has no scintilla of truth in it, and members of Ebonyi State PDP caucus in the House of Representatives hereby dissociate themselves from it. 2. Ebonyi State Chapter of PDP has not adopted any consensus candidate for the 2015 governorship election. It was the Unwu Ekumenyi Kindred or Old Abakaliki bloc which constitutes more than two-thirds of Ebonyi voting population that adopted Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu as their consensus candidate and urged the PDP in Ebonyi State to field Prof. Chukwu if PDP needed their votes. 3. Members of Ebonyi State PDP caucus in the House of Representatives could not reject the adoption of Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu by the Old Abakaliki bloc comprising Ebonyi North and Ebonyi Central Senatorial districts as their consensus candidate in the 2015 governorship election in Ebonyi State after all the members of the caucus, including the selfsame Hon. Linus Okorie, had individually held press conferences in their respective constituencies in October, 2014 applauding the decision of the old Abakaliki bloc in adopting Prof. Chukwu whom Ebonyiains had earlier voted as Ebonyi Man-of-the-year in a poll conducted in March 2014. 4. Hon. Linus Okorie was not in the Old Abakaliki bloc meeting where the adoption was made because he did not belong there, so he could not have known how the adoption of Prof. Chukwu evolved. Hon. Okorie’s use of negative labels like “imposition” to describe the patriotic act of the Old Abakaliki bloc in adopting a man who is rightly seen as the pride of Ebonyi State is as wrong as it is unfair, and should not have emanated from a custodian of the people’s mandate like Hon. Okorie. 5. Without prejudice to Mr. Joseph Onwe, we wish to state here that he is no longer the Acting Chairman of Ebonyi PDP. We have a substantive PDP Chairman in Ebonyi State, Mazi Ben Akpa, who was duly elected pursuant to the provisions of Section 47(6) of the PDP constitution 2012 (as amended) at the 35th S.E.C. meeting of Ebonyi PDP. This provision of the PDP constitution has been invoked by Ebonyi PDP in two other similar occasions in the recent past: The first time was when Chief Obinna Ogba resigned in 2007 and was replaced with Chief Okeagu Ogada from Ebonyi Central; and the second time was when Chief Dave Umahi resigned in 2010 and was replaced with Price Ugorji Amaoti from Ebonyi South. Hon. Linus Okorie’s reference to Mr. Joseph Onwe as the Acting Chairman of PDP in Ebonyi State is therefore a calculated attempt to create confusion in our peaceful state, and is as condemnable as his infantile fabrications against our dear Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, C.O.N., and the PDP faithful in Ebonyi State. We therefore demand that Hon. Linus Okorie tenders unreserved apologies to our founding father and governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Martin Nwanchor Elechi, C.O.N.; the Chairman of PDP in Ebonyi State, Mazi Ben Akpa; and the entire PDP faithful in Ebonyi State. Hon. Tobias Okwuru (KSM) Hon Peter Oge Ali
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 06:27:57 +0000
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