A chief of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the party, Chief Augustine Nnamani, has said the PDP should be blamed should the Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah, ultimately dumps the party. Reports have been rife over Mbah’s plan to defect from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
An online newspaper reported that the governor’s defection date would be announced after the last lap of a wide stakeholders’ consultations scheduled to end last week. It named former governors of Enugu State, including Barr Sullivan Chime as well as former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, among other senior members and supporters of the APC in Enugu, as personalities believed to have influenced Mbah’s decision to join the APC.
It further quoted the governor’s media aide, Uche Anichukwu, of acknowledging the recent wave of political consultations in the state, although he denied any final decision to dump the PDP. However, reacting to the development yesterday, Chief Augustine Nnamani, said he would not be surprised if Mbah eventually decamps to the APC or any other party, saying PDP should bear the blame if it happens.
“Yes, I can confirm that there have been consultations on the future of Enugu State in particular and South East in general, given how the PDP has treated the region.
But the final decision lies with the governor at the end of the day based on the aggregations of the feedback,” he said. He accused the party of betraying both Mbah and the South East PDP. “I have been at this party for so long.
Until now, I never saw an entire region thrown under the bus to make one person happy. More so a region like the South East that has successively given the party it’s all, sometimes even when we had our own sons on the tickets of other parties as presidential and vice presidential candidates.
He added that Mbah’s defection, if it eventually happens, would not be like any other defection. “It means that the South East, which used to control the five South East states, would now be the only geopolitical zone without a PDP governor. “It will also be a huge loss to the PDP as Mbah is unarguably one of the most celebrated and outstanding governors in Nigeria as of today,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the Nkerefi community in the Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state on Sunday highlighted the economic opportunities in the town, assuring investors of high returns on their investments.
Speaking at the maiden Nkerefi Economic Summit, Justice Cyprian Ajah of an Enugu State High Court, expressed the community’s support for Mbah’s government. He described Nkerefi as a resilient and enterprising people blessed with vast arable land yet to be fully tapped.
