Two days after he boycotted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Abia 2023 governorship primaries over alleged irregularities, Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe has pitched his tent with the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
An Abia APGA chieftain (name withheld) who spoke with News Express this morning disclosed that Abaribe has already picked the APGA senatorial form and is set to contest the party’s primary election holding today, Friday, May 27, 2022.
This vindicates News Express, which broke the news of Abaribe’s imminent defection in a May 4 story headlined, “WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Abaribe set to dump PDP for APGA; draws battle-line with Gov. Ikpeazu”.
Abaribe had suffered a double loss in PDP after being stopped from returning to the Senate by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who has since picked the PDP ticket, while also being zoned out of the 2023 Abia governorship race to pave the way for the emergence of Ikpeazu’s crony, Prof. Uche Ikonne.
With Abaribe likely to grab the APGA senatorial ticket for Abia South, the battle-line has become drawn between him and Governor Ikpeazu, his Ngwa brother from the same community. “They will now have to test their popularity during the next senatorial election,” the source who revealed Abaribe’s defection to APGA told News Express.
