Governor Okezie Ikpeazu says that if the PDP must win the 2023 Presidential Elections, the party must dredge up sufficient courage to take decisions that will stabilize the party. The Governor has therefore pledged to assist the Board of Trustees of the PDP resolve the problems confronting the party with a view to ensuring that the PDP clinches victory in 2023.
Governor Ikpeazu gave the assurance while welcoming the members of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the PDP led by her new acting Chairman and former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who called on him at his Umuobiakwa Country Home. He said there must be genuine reconciliation and truth if the party must rise above the current challenges confronting it, and prayed that the party will know the variables that have changed and respond to them accordingly.
The Governor stressed that PDP must remain angry and hungry for power, adding that the party must correct the mistakes that made it lose election in 2015. According to the Governor, it is better for the party not to wash its dirty linings outside, maintaining that the PDP has the capacity to solve the problem internally. To that end, he enjoined the BOT to look at the issues dispassionately and expressed the hope that the new BOT Chairman as a career diplomat would rise to the occasion.
Ikpeazu assured that Abia State is a PDP State, hence there was no reason PDP would not win all the elections in the State, informing that the campaign slogan in the State is 5 over 5, meaning securing victory for the Presidential , Governorship, Senatorial,House of representatives and House of Assembly candidates.
The Governor said that the BOT members have the capacity to resolve the PDP problems and assured that he would help them actualize peace in the party. He stressed on the need for PDP members across the country to pursue the 2023 elections with more vigour , saying that the members must be committed to achieving victory in the forthcoming general elections.
Ikpeazu congratulated Senator Adolphus Wabara on his appointment as the acting BOT Chairman of the party and said that he might have been appointed to the position this critical period because of his background and capacity to speak the right words at the right time. He assured Senator Wabara that he would do everything within his powers to ensure he succeeds in his new assignment.
Earlier in his speech, the acting BOT Chairman, Senator Wabara said he was in the State to inform the Governor officially that he was recently appointed the acting Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees. He said he deemed it fit to come to start his assignment from his home State.
He informed that the BOT desires to look into the problems in PDP, hence the decision to move around to call on Governors and other stakeholders of the party with a view to ensuring victory for the party in next year’s elections, maintaining that PDP has conflict resolution mechanism with which to handle its problems.
The meeting later went into an Executive Session after which Governor Ikpeazu and Senator Wabara spoke to journalists.
Other members of the PDP BOT who were part of the delegation are former Governors of Enugu and Kogi States, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and Alhaji Ibrahim Idris. Others are a former. Deputy Governor of Abia State, Rt Hon Eric Acho Nwakanma, former Minister, Saminu Turaki, SAN, former National Deputy Chairman of the party, Chief Shuaibu Oyedokun, former Minister, Hajia Zainab Maina and Dame Dr. Esther Uduehi.
The PDP Gubernatorial Candidate in Abia State, Professor Uche Ikonne and his running mate, Hon Okey Igwe, House of Assembly Member, Hon. A C Thomas Nkoro, Secretary to Government, Barrister Chris Ezem, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Okey Ahiwe, a former State Chairman of the PDP in the State, Chief Ndidi Okereke, were amongst others who were present at the meeting.
