“You are killing PDP in Ebonyi State” – Former PDP chairman tells Governor Elechi, others

The former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ebonyi State, Chief Obinna Ogba has urged leaders of the PDP in the state not to kill the party.

Speaking over the weekend, Ogba declared that the party had been hijacked by members of the defunct All Peoples Party, APP, which later changed to All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.

He alleged that these decampees were destroying the unity and internal democracy within the PDP in the state.

DailyPost recalls that ANPP later merged with other parties to form the All Progressives
Congress, APC.

Angry with the turn of events in the state and making indirect reference to the current chairman of PDP, Prince Ugoji Ama-Oti, the Governor Chief Martin Elechi, his deputy, Engr Dave Umahi and some National Assembly members and state executive council members who formerly belonged to APP, Ogba stated that the present crop of leadership of the party lacked the mentality of accommodating and
increasing the membership status of the party in the state.

He recalled that while his administration as PDP chairman usually embarked on a
concept called “Personal Touch” to woo aggrieved members back to the
party, the present leadership of the party in the State was not interested in resolving issues affecting its members, especially when it has to do with choice of candidates during elections.

He said, “Those of them who decamped from APP now APC are the ones that finished the party but that is the truth because they came and drove away people instead of retaining them.

“They don’t have the mentality of keeping people together; they don’t have the mentality of bringing people together to build Ebonyi and the party.

“PDP is a very big umbrella and therefore they should endeavour to bring in people and not scare people away; they should adopt the
initiative for dialogue, I mean personal touch. It doesn’t remove
anything from you, when you ask another person what the problem is, so
that it can be resolved.

“For instance, the present Governor of the State had run for Governorship against us under All Peoples Party, which became ANPP and today APC; it was during my time that the present Governor joined PDP.
The same thing with Ama-Oti who is the present Chairman of the party in the state; I brought him to PDP and gave him ticket to go to the House of Assembly; then, Chris Nwankwo who is the Senator today, we
begged him before to come and go to the National Assembly when he could have been useful to Ebonyians but he refused that he must run under ANPP and that was why we sent Chris Nshi to the Senate.

“It is human beings that make party and not papers; for me I’m not bordered, I’m in PDP. And I will remain in PDP but they should not kill the party. They have given me all kinds of names. Sometimes they
say I’m in ANPP, ACN, nPDP, PPA; all these things are calculated plans to put me out of the government but I’m not worried”.

“In Ebonyi, whether anybody likes it or not, all of us are stakeholders in Ebonyi and the money that comes into Ebonyi belongs to all of us including the children yet unborn and in as much as you are from Ebonyi, you have a share in it; the only thing is that the
Governor was entrusted with our resources to supervise it to the
benefit of all.

“Even right now, I have started receiving threat simply because I said
I want to contest for governorship in 2015; people should be allowed to say their minds in a democratic dispensation; nobody should be hunted because of the proclamation of truth in this State. Somebody said they will close my hotel because I want to run for governorship. I’m still watching and waiting”, he concluded.