The immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Abia State University, Uturu, who is the consensus governorship candidate of the Ukwa la Ngwa bloc of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof Uche Ikonne, on Wednesday picked the nomination form of his party ahead of the Abia State PDP Guber primaries holding in May 2022.
Prof Ikonne was accompanied by some of the foremost elders of Ukwa Ngwa, which include John Nwagborogwu and Don Ubani; PDP members from Abia North senatorial district including Hon Nnenna Elendu Ukeje, Rt Hon Cosmos Ndukwe and many others.
THE WHISPERER had reported that the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had at a secret meeting picked Prof Ikonne as the consensus governorship candidate of the party.
Ikonne hails from Agburuike-Nsulu in Isiala Ngwa North, one of the three Ngwa LGAs in Abia Central senatorial district, also known as Umunneato.
Ikonne is a professor of Optometry.
The aftermath of the meeting which annointed Prof Ikonne, Governor Ikpeazu’s Ukwa-la-Ngwa kinsmen endorsed him as their consensus candidate for the 2023 governorship race.
They made the endorsement Monday evening, when a high-powered delegation of Ukwa-la-Ngwa clan led by the pioneer Attorney General of the State, Chief Theo Nkire, met with Ikonne at the ex-VC’s Umuahia residence.
Addressing newsmen later after hours of discussions indoors, Nkire said :” We came to persuade our son to run for the 2023 governorship position.
” He has been tried and tested and we found him worthy. His enviable records at ABSU speak volume of what he can do.
” He is our consensus candidate and we are asking every other Ukwa-la-Ngwa son or daughter aspiring to be Governor in 2023 to step down for him. He is the only one with our backing.”
Asked if the agitation by the Ukwa-la-Ngwa nation for power in 2023 was not a violation of the Abia Charter of Equity which recommended power rotation among all three senatorial districts in the state as the incumbent who is one of their own would be finishing his second tenure by 2023, Nkire said crusaders of Charter of Equity misinterpreted the document.
He explained that contrary to misinterpretations by the proponents of the document, Abia Charter of Equity which, he said was enacted 10 years before the creation of Abia State, recommended power rotation between the Old Bende and Aba Divisions, and not rotation among three senatorial zones.
Nkire argued that Aba Division now comprising the six Local Government Areas in Abia South senatorial district, and the three Ngwa LGAs in Abia Central, has only held power for eight years by 2023 since the creation of Abia, while power had resided with Old Bende for 18 years, hence, their insistence that another Ngwa man would succeed Ikpeazu to make for the balance.
Speaking earlier, former Deputy Governor, Acho Nwakanma, said they came to beg Ikonne to make himself available to serve the state in the capacity of Governor, describing him as the most qualified and credible son of Ukwa-la-Ngwa extraction to hold the position now.
Adding his voice, former Commissioner for Information and the incumbent Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Deputy Governor, Chief Don Ubani, who spoke for the Ukwa nation, said Ukwa-la-Ngwa had been cheated enough by the Old Bende Division, hence, their insistence to produce Ikpeazu’s successor.
Ubani said he had read Abia Charter of Equity and discovered that Ukwa-la-Ngwa people were the marginalised as power had resided with the Old Bende Division for 18 years including the two years of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu from Afikpo now in Ebonyi State, and former Governors Orji Uzor Kalu, and Theodore Orji.
In his remarks, Elder John Nwagborogwu, said Gov. Ikpeazu had managed Abia exceptionally, hence, the Ukwa-la-Ngwa could not afford to bring ” a tout” as his successor to avoid lowering the standard.
” Ikpeazu is an intellectual, so, we need another super intellectual to succeed him”, he added, saying that Ikonne set an enviable records as ABSU VC.
Nwagborogwu said that Ikonne had a clean record of judicious management of Tethfund allocations, and would successfully run the state if given the opportunity.
Present also at the event were top aides of Governor Ikpeazu, fuelling speculations that Ikonne may have been the Governor’s anointed candidate.
