Why we denied Ekweremadu’s gov ticket -Party’s chairman

The All Progressives Congress in Enugu State has explained it rejected former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu’s attempt to “hijack” the party’s governorship ticket.

There were rumours that Ekweremadu had concluded plans to join APC to realise his governorship ambition in the 2023 election after he withdrew from his Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship primary on Wednesday.

Ekweremadu had denied any move to dump PDP, saying that he is still a member of PDP.

But addressing journalists in Enugu on Sunday, the state chairman of APC, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, however, confirmed that Ekweremadu wanted to hijack the party’s platform to actualise his ambition but was rejected.

He, however, said the move to grab the party’s ticket from Abuja would never work, describing it as evil.

He said, “Ekweremadu is a man I have great respect for. We have held discussions, on the need for him to come and join us as a member of the party, the same way I met other persons.

“I reached out to him before our primary, but he informed me in the presence of the Southeast chairman of our party, that we should give him our ticket for governorship position.

“Even after our primary, he is still insisting that we should give him ticket.

“And I’m baffled because his demand is repugnant to natural justice, at variance with the Electoral Act, which he is one of the makers.

“His demand is evil, ignoble, shows that a man does not change his colour.

“He is in court claiming that he was subverted during the PDP primary, but the same man is now running up and down, disturbing us up and down, mobilizing Senators to prevail on our national chairman to subvert the Electoral Act.

“The Electoral Act is clear, nobody can give him a waiver to undo what we did.

“Uche Nnaji is our candidate; he emerged after a primary election duly observed by INEC.

“We want Ekweremadu to be our member but we cannot give him our governorship ticket. These are some of the things that give a bad image to Nigerian politicians.

“Ekweremadu wants to be governor but the position was not even zoned to Enugu West, but he wants to take Enugu East turn. Now, he wants to come and subvert APC, where I am the chairman. And I ask, what kind of a man is Ekweremadu, who is this Ekweremadu?

“He is not a member of APC and he is demanding our ticket, is he now blinded by ambition. If I see him at my party, I will treat him like a mad man.

“His demands portend grave danger to our political system. I will not allow desperados to come and scatter what we have laboured for.

“Ekweremadu has been in power for 24 years, he should support others. It must not be about him all the time. We are not operating absolute monarchy.”