The Chances of Dr. Josef-Ken Onoh emerging as the 2023 Enugu state governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, brightened on Tuesday with the official withdrawal of Hon. Offor Chukwuegbo from the race.
Chukwuegbo who represents Enugu North/Enugu South federal constituency in the House of Representatives had on Tuesday reportedly announced before his 17 local government council coordinators that he has stepped down from the Governorship race to pursue going back to the National Assembly.
Following the development, Dr. Onoh who hails from Enugu North local government council has emerged the only candidate of the Federal constituency in Enugu East senatorial district where stakeholders in the state have agreed that the next governor of the state should come from in the spirit of zoning, justice, fairness and equity.
Speaking on the development, a PDP stalwart from Enugu North local government area, Chief Ike Ngwu commended Chukwuegbo for reducing tension in the race.
Ngwu said: “Offor’s (Chukwuegbo) action is quiet commendable and has narrowed the governorship race in Enugu North/ Enugu South federal constituency to Dr. Ken Onoh. His reason for stepping down may not be far from our federal constituency’s decision to produce one aspirant with with which we want to use to make our bargain stronger.
“Remember that both Offor and Onoh were both members of Enugu State House of Assembly at the same time between 2003-2007. The traditional rulers of our Federal constituency and other political stakeholders have been meeting on how to make a common bargain in this governorship election because we believe that we have a superior argument in Enugu east senatorial zone and that is what you have seen playing out.
“We are hoping that the remaining two federal constituencies in Enugu East senatorial district which are Nkanu East/Nkanu West and Enugu East/Isi-Uzo will toe the same line as we have done so that the choice our PDP candidate would be made simpler.
“As Offor told his coordinators, it’s not just one person who has the responsibility of tailoring down the number of aspirants which you know are 15 in number and with this his magnimity and bold step, our federal constituency has set a pace which we hope others will follow. We don’t need the Governor’s intervention to help the state in resolving a political congestion such as we have now in this 2023 governorship contest.
“We applaud Offor’s decision to reduce the burden on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in the electoral process. We just hope that the other two federal constituencies will follow the example we have set and arrive at credible candidates in each of their constituencies to help the Governor made a viable choice.”
