“It is wrong to stop Chimaroke from returning to PDP” – Ekweremadu

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu State continued on Friday as the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has thrown his weight behind former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani.

A move by Nnamani to return to the PDP has been surrounded with controversies as the leadership of the party in the state vehemently opposed him.

However, speaking on the matter, Ekweremadu declared that it was wrong for anybody to try to stop another from joining the party.

He said that PDP is not a secret cult and as such is open for new membership since the constitution guarantees freedom of association.

Recently Nnamani declared his return to the PDP and declared his readiness to contest for the Enugu-East senatorial seat in the 2015 election.
But the vice chairman of PDP in Agbani Ward and other party leaders in Enugu West local government rejected his return bid, saying he must follow the due process by first writing to the ward secretary.

But Ekweremadu said, “nobody is going to stop anybody from being in any political party. Things don’t work that way; we don’t run a secret society, it’s not a cult, PDP is a big party, and is open to everybody so I’m surprised if anybody is opposing his (Nnamani’s) coming back. He will actually add value and the more the merrier in this business.

“So, I think we should have an open mind in all this. To think about it, the major political actors in Enugu state are all products of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani and we should be grateful to him. The worse thing that will happen to anybody is the sin of ingratitude; if you are ungrateful to anybody you can never make any progress. The Bible is clear on that. So if you pay good with evil, evil will never depart from your house. So we expect that any person who has benefited from Chimaroke should be happy with him, the least you can do is to wish him well”.

He expressed his happiness that the former governor had taken the decision to return to the party, which he left to form the People for Democratic Change (PDC), saying that it is a positive development.

“I read that he went to the ward and declared his interest to return and he was fully accepted. I think it is also a positive development for us in PDP in Enugu state. You recall that in the last election, PDP gave most of the votes to the presidential candidate of PDP, Goodluck Jonathan. And that time Senator Nnamani was in PDC, now that he is with us in PDP, it is expected that we are going to get more votes this time. Majority of the votes will now go to Mr. President and of course to PDP.

“So for us in the PDP it’s a welcome development. He has been a founding father of PDP in Enugu state; he played a major role in stabilizing PDP in bringing about the position which most of us occupy today. So I think that we should also be excited that he is coming back to PDP and we should be able to encourage him”, he added.

The Deputy President of the Senate called on others yet to come back to quickly return, so that the PDP would have a complete hold of Enugu State.