After 24 years of dominating Southeastern politics since the restoration of democratic rule in the country in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been retrenched from the zone because of its poor record and poor treatment of leaders from the area, according to the Enugu State Stakeholders Forum (ESSF).
The party no longer controls Anambra, Abia, Imo and Ebonyi states.
The Enugu stakeholders in a statement in Enugu signed by its leader, Professor Joseph Aneke, and countersigned by its secretary, Dr Ifeanyi Agbo , noted that “Enugu as the capital of the Southeast cannot afford to be in an odd position in the zone”.
The stakeholders accused the PDP of pretending to be in charge of the executive arm of the state, saying the pretension would end the moment the Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal delivers judgment on the authentic result of the gubernatorial vote.
“The performance of PDP’s various administrations in Enugu State, for instance, except that of Sullivan Chime, has been anything but inspiring”, the stakeholders said.
The forum claimed that the Southeastern people never forgot how the party treated Nigeria’s first Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, whose learning and personal integrity as well as unimpeachable leadership attributes gave the PDP its original reputation of a national movement that enabled it to win the historic 1998/9 general election by a wide margin.
“On two occasions”, it recalled, “Dr. Ekwueme sought the party’s presidential ticket and on two occasions it was denied him simply because he came from the wrong part of the nation.
“Still, the people continued to give the PDP the benefit of the doubt until the 2023 general elections when the party was routed because the people had become fed up”.
It explained: “The people voted overwhelmingly for change in the election by siding unabashedly with the Labour Party (LP) and its candidates”.
“The Labour Party won 88.7% of the presidential vote, two of the three senatorial seats, seven of the eight House of Representatives seats, and 14 of the 24 House of Assembly seats”.
The Enugu stakeholders described the result of the governorship election declared by INEC as “a pure electoral heist which cannot be defended or rationalised”.
Noting that the claim that PDP’s Peter Mbah won over 16,000 votes in his home Nkanu East Local Government Area composed of mostly villages and small towns “is ludicrous”, the forum said that the “figure is amusing to even the INEC national headquarters which announced at a press conference on March 22 in Enugu that it had slashed the number of votes allocated to Mbah to a little over 15,000, though enough to give the PDP a spurious victory”.
Concluded the stakeholders: “The truth is that the PDP has been retrenched from Enugu State and the rest of the Southeast, and it cannot come back”.
