In order to ensure that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, candidates emerge victorious in the 2019 general election slated for the first quarter of the year, the leadership of the party in Arochukwu LGA has begun series of consultations and meetings with the stake-holders of the five original clans that make up the Arochukwu LGA-Arochukwu, Abam, Ihechiowa,Isu and Ututu- with a view to ensuring that peace and harmony reigns within the rank and file of the party, and that acrimony and rancorous situations do not exist again among party members on one hand and the candidates of the party on the other hand and their followers.
The first of such fence-mending meetings was held on Saturday, 01 December, 2018 at the LGA secretariat of the People’s Democratic Party at the Ibom headquarters of the party in Arochukwu. Addressing the stake-holders of the party drawn from Arochukwu wards one, two and three, the chairman of PDP in Arochukwu LGA, Hon Obinna Nwankwo, stressed the need for members to bury the hatchet, sink their differences and come together to help ensure victory for the candidates of the party.
Obinna Nwankwo remarked that that would only be possible when the apparent disunity and strife, disenchantment and bitterness existing, between and among members of the party were diffused to ensure such party members work for the party candidates next year in togetherness and unity of purpose, and to avoid such members working against the party’s interest in any form. He urged members to always feel free to say out their grievances instead of engaging in rumour-mongering and gossiping. He said that efforts were being made to reconcile the leading and contending political heavyweights in the LGA, Sen MAO and Chief Uko Nkole, and that the apparent polarization between them and their supporters would soon be addressed, pointing out further that members had supported either Senator MAO or Hon Nkole in one party affair or the other in the past following some of the seeming differences between the two NASS members and their supporters, and that the two of them must be reconciled soonest towards the unity of the party in Arochukwu LGA before next year’s election. He said that the polarization became more pronounced after the last party primaries and delegates’ elections.
After his speech, some stake-holders present reacted as expected. They included Ejike Okoronkwo (of Amuvi village, ward 111), Okoro Okoroafo (of Ujarivillage, ward 1), Mazi Luke Nwabueze Kanu (of Amankwu, ward 11) and Dr Sunny Nwankwo (of Ibom, ward 1). In particular, Mazi Luke Kanu thanked Hon Obinna Nwankwo, the chairman, for thinking it necessary to meet with the party stake- holders in Arochukwu towards reconciling aggrieved members and the followers of Sen MAO Ohuabunwa and Chief Uko Nkole respectively so that all members would work together for the party’s success in 2019.
Mazi Kanu also commended the chairman for accepting his mistakes in the past which, he insisted, helped in bringing acrimony, divisiveness and polarization in the party in the affairs between Sen MAO and Hon Nkole during the primaries and even before then. He insisted all efforts must be made to ensure the party goes into the 2019 general election as a united body for the success of the party and the candidates.
Dr Sunny Nwankwo and Mazi Okoro Okoroafo spoke in the same line. They had emphasized the need to see that all party members work together for the 2019 general election and that Sen MAO and Hon Nkole reconcile any difference(s) between them and their followers for the success of the party next year.
Meanwhile, the Arochukwu LGA chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has continued to receive defectors from other political parties who join the party on daily basis.
According to a former PDP member in Isimkpu, Arochukwu Ward 2, who spoke to Aro News after defecting to APGA recently, ‘more and more people are joining APGA in Arochukwu on daily basis after realising that PDP has failed them for years. PDP leaders say one thing today and do the other thing tomorrow. When it comes to appointments, they give them to those who live in Umuahia, Lagos and Abuja, leaving those living at home and who do the actual voting and fight in the field for the party. PDP is a party where injustice reigns supreme,’ he concluded.
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