PDP to appeal court order restraining Ebonyi caretaker

The Caretaker Committee chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, Chief Fred Udogu, said at the weekend that his party would appeal the court judgment which restrained the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party from dissolving its former executive in the state led by Mr. Onyekachi Nwebonyi.

News Express reports that the Nwebonyi-led executive was few weeks ago dissolved by the NWC shortly after Governor David Umahi defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC).

But the dissolved Chairman, Nwebonyi, had upon the dissolution, dragged the party to an court sitting in Abakaliki, praying the court to restrain its national executive from dissolving them which was granted by the court.

Speaking with journalists in Abakaliki, Chief Udogu said all arrangements have been made to appeal the judgment adding that the former chairman Nwebonyi is currently occupying the party’s state secretariat illegally.

According to him, “Our plan is to unseat the ruling APC from the presidency, the states and in all the wards. We want to take over this country because what we are seeing is not what we were promised.

“Ebonyi is naturally and traditionally a PDP state. We are already working on how our supporters will stand still. They are only using unfounded propaganda against our brothers because they control the state radio and TV. They have been feeding people of the state with all manner of lies but we are preparing. Political fight is not a fight with gun or knife but with intelligence and wisdom.

“But nobody has the monopoly of knowledge. We have done it before and we will continue to do it. The present government led by David Umahi knew that I and other stakeholders threw our weights behind him. He knew how we unseated the former government and installed him as the governor.

“Once you started telling people lies, you are no more part of that person. This government has fed our people with terrible lies. And our people are terribly suffering. No employment, nothing is happening in the state. You see people engaging in an unusual trade just to survive, but the state allocation is bigger than what we used to get before.

“We know that there will be battle, but the problem they have is that they don’t know us. Where they think they know us but really they don’t.  It is a matter of the more you look the less you see. I don’t think any of them can actually interpret the kind of person we are. The truth is that we are on our own. Before then, we knew them and we understood them.

“We are loyal people of this country. We accepted the court judgment. It is good and I don’t want to talk much on the matter that is still in court. By next week, we will be on appeal.

“But all I know is that it is a useless and baseless matter. We know that they will go to court. We know all they will do, but we will not attack them. We will always be following their tracks. We are coming behind and we don’t want to go ahead of them.

“We will match them bomber to bomber; we are running a kind of divergence track. They are running their own and we are running our own. We are not interested in destroying the state. Nobody is interested in fighting. Nobody is interested in pushing anybody. It is them that bought knives and gave them to the youths. We shall be looking at them when it will start. They are already talking of killings and no killings. Killings are not in our programmes, it is never in our agenda and we can’t talk of that.

“We are not going to kill and nobody will kill us. But if anybody tries what is funny against our people, some people will now know that nobody has monopoly or control over the state but we are all subjects to the constitution of this country.

“PDP has the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of the secretariat. That land was acquired by the PDP. The house was built by the PDP.

“Lucky enough, I was in government then; nobody can claim that the secretariat is his. And when it is time, we will take over the secretariat. We are not struggling over the house. What they are trying to do is to distract us. They know that they are staying there illegally. It doesn’t stop us from working.

“Why should the governor be talking? He is talking because he wants to talk. I won’t challenge him, he is still our governor. He is my governor and my friend, but this time, we are going to operate from different angle and perspectives.”