Women from Abia North senatorial zone on Wednesday gave Governor Okezie Ikpeazu a one-week ultimatum to adopt a candidate from the zone for the 2023 Governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or be prepared to lose their votes.
They described as the height of betrayal, the alleged support of the governor for the self succession agenda of the Ngwa people against the Abia Charter of Equity which favours Abia North to produce the next governor of the state.
In a communiqué after an emergency meeting held at Ohafia, the women under the aegis of Umuada Bende regretted that Ikpeazu has allowed himself to be hijacked by Ngwa irredentists to set the state on fire.
In the communiqué signed by Dame Ngozika Ikodiya Kalu and Lolo Chioma Njoku on behalf of the delegates, the women urged Ikpeazu to as a matter of urgency withdraw his support from a former Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof Eleazar Ikonne and throw his weight behind any candidate of his choice from Abia North.
“If by the expiration of this ultimatum, the governor refuses or neglects to accede to our humble request, we shall take it that both himself and PDP are prepared to lose the votes of millions of Abia North women,” they warned.
They wondered why Ikpeazu was opposed to the voice of reason to embark upon an action that will destroy whatever legacies he had built for himself.
According to them, “it is tantamount to self-destruction for the governor to jettison the Abia Charter of Equity which brought him to power to pander to ethnic consideration with dire consequences.”
They announced that all Abia North women have been put on notice to vote against PDP should both the party and Ikpeazu obdurately present Prof. Ikonne as their candidate.
“For us, it is a matter of life and death. It is either they give the ticket to any of our sons or we protest with our votes. The governor has one week to give us an answer,” they insisted.
They also lampooned the choice of Ikonne, saying that he was a liability to PDP as a candidate as a result of his records at both Abia State Polytechnic and Abia State University.
“It is not out of place to say what he did. But the mountains of debts he left and the unpaid salaries in both institutions speak for themselves. Our concern is that the Governorship should be taken to Abia North where it rightly belongs”, they concluded. (Daily Independent)
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