Abia guber: Group urges PDP to pick candidate from Ukwa/Ngwa
The Ukwa/Ngwa National Front in Abia, have urged PDP to nominate its governorship candidate from the area or forfeit their votes in the general election.
The area, which constitutes nine out of the 17 local government areas of the state and formerly known as the old Aba division, presently belongs to Abia South Senatorial Zone.
At a meeting in Aba today, before embarking on a procession round the city, the group stressed the need for PDP to give its governorship ticket to Mr Iheanacho Orji, who came second in the party primary.
Various speakers at the meeting, including a cross-section of traditional rulers from the area, said that it was the turn of the area to produce the next governor of the state.
The traditional rulers further spoke of an agreement that was reached by the traditional rulers council in the state, prior to the re-election of Governor Orji Kalu in 2003, that the area would produce his successor in 2007.
They argued that, the only way to redress the injustice that had been meted out to the area and give the people a sense of belonging would be for PDP to give the governorship ticket to Orji.
The people further said that this would also compensate them for their many years of unalloyed support for the party, threatening to abandon the party should it deny them the ticket.
The chairman and national secretary of the group, Messrs Chima Abraham and Emma Onyemuru as well as the former Commissioner for Health, Dr. John Chikezie, urged PDP to conduct a run-off between Orji and Onyema Ugochukwu, who came first in the primary.
They argued that, it would be sheer discrepancy and injustice for the party to jettison its own constitution and impose a candidate on the people.
"Our people would be forced to pull out en masse from the party if our son is not given the ticket," they threatened. .