Anambra 2021 Guber: Zoning, Obi, Ekwunife On The Hot Seat As PDP NEC Invites Anambra Aspirants, Stakeholders For Emergency Meeting. …Party may likely shift the date of primary election to June 30

BY NWEKE NWEKE (AWKA)

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The Wadata House of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) is already filled to its brim this morning following the invitations extended to all the political party’s stakeholders in the Southeast region over the upcoming gubernatorial primary slated for June 26, 2021.

Top on the agenda is the attempt by Senator Uche Ekwunife, aided by her National Assembly allies (past and present), to hijack the 3-man ad-hoc delegate list to favour the woman senator who represents Anambra Central Zone at the Senate.

The ward congresses to elect the ad-hoc delegates held on June 11, 2021 and a power-play between Dr Obiora Okonkwo and Senator Ekwunife marred the exercise in some local government areas.

Ekwunife is believed to have outsmarted Okonkwo the time around and several of her agents reportedly made away with the original result sheets. Several of them later resurfaced with doctored results of the poll at the National Headquarters of the PDP.

This development did not go down well with the other aspirants, and 13 out of the 16 of them signed a strongly worded petition to the NEC of the party.

Consequently, the party may shift the primary to allow for time to accommodate the concern of all the stakeholders in the election. Our sources tell us June 30 is a likely new date for the exercise.

247thirdey.com reports authoritatively that the big topic on the table before the national leadership of the PDP, aside from the attempted hijacking of the ad-hoc delegate process, is the topic of zoning.

Unarguably, the zoning arrangement in the state for power rotation makes it the turn of Anambra South Senatorial district to produce the next governor. To this end twelve of the sixteen aspirants come from Anambra South. In addition, the 12 aspirants from Anambra South issued a strongly worded communique a few weeks back declaring that they would only support the flag-bearer to win the November 6 poll if it were any one of them.

This communique, published in the national dailies, rocked the PDP which had refused to take an open stand on zoning all this while. Internally, leaders of the party are working to ensure that the party produces a candidate from Anambra South.

Information from inside Wadata House revealed that the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi who openly endorses the zoning agreement, was found to be secretly working to steal the ticket from the South and hand it to Ekwunife who is from the Central.

“We are apprehensive that former Governor Obi who tells people openly that he is remaining neutral in this guber primary race would sneak into Enugu Government House at night to conspire to have the ticket stolen from the South and given to his sister in the Central,” a top PDP stalwart told our correspondent under the condition of anonymity.

“Why a man of Obi’s statue would fall into an unholy alliance with the kind of woman that Ekwunife is, is worrisome.

“By this action, Obi is sending a message that is contrary to his presidential ambition. If he says zoning doesn’t matter in his home state, then how would it matter at the national level to produce an Igbo presidency?”

Several petitions on the two issues of zoning and the ad-hoc delegate list have flooded the PDP national secretariat and our sources reveal, Prince Uche Secondus “is tired” of the Anambra issue and wants things done right.

“We have done this same primary under Secondus at the presidential level. No stories. We have done primary in Edo, no stories. We have done primary in Ondo, no stories,” another PDP stalwart, who again, did not want to be named, said. “Why must these characters soil the good record of transparency of our party chairman?”

Speaking of Ekwunife, our source said, “This is a woman that belongs to four political parties. She is a member of APGA and APC and another mushroom party. She could decamp any minute with our senate seat. She should not be allowed to derail our party.”

We could not establish contact with any of the people involved as some of their media aides reached as at the time of filing this report declined comments, probably to avoid contradicting their respective principal.

We are going to keep you posted as events unfold.