2027: PDP has no place in Ebonyi

•Soludo, Mbah, Uzodinma, Umahi drum support for Tinubu

From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki

The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, and Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, yesterday, declared that the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has no place in the state in next year’s general election.

Yilwatda and Nwifuru made the declaration at the Abakaliki Township Stadium, during the state’s endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 general election, organised by Nwifuru and Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi.

Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, his Imo State counterpart, Hope Uzodinma, and Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, represented by his deputy attended the event and declared their support for the President’s re-election.

The APC National Chairman and Ebonyi State governor used the occasion to dismiss the growing insinuations in some quarters that the state has been conceded to the PDP in the 2027 general election.

Dismissing the insinuation, Yilwatda said the state will not allow PDP to take any position in the forthcoming general election.

“We will return President Bola Tinubu and Francis Nwifuru as the Governor of Ebonyi State come 2027.

“We want to return all the APC Senators; we want to return all the House of Representatives and House Assembly candidates in 2027.

Nobody has conceded Ebonyi to PDP. Therefore, there is no vacancy in Ebonyi State. Ebonyi PDP has no place, and there is no vacancy at all in the Government House in Ebonyi, come 2027”, the APC National Chairman declared.

He commended the people of the state for their support for Tinubu and urged them to return him in next year’s presidential election, to pay him back for what he has done for the state and entire South East through infrastructural transformation and human capital development.

Also speaking at the event, Governor Francis Nwifuru said the state has no other presidential candidate for the 2027 general election except President Bola Tinubu. He declared that the state is totally an All Progressives Congress (APC) state and vowed that the party will deliver the President in the state.

Nwifuru said Tinubu has paid a price for the state and deserves its total support for appointing Senator David Umahi the minister of works, who, he said, has performed creditably. “Ebonyi has no other presidential candidate other than President Bola Tinubu, and we will back him in the presidential election.

“We are standing here, today, to tell the whole world, especially those who have used Mr. President’s name to orchestrate division and confusion in this great state, to know that we have only one party, and that is APC.

“This statement came out on the ground that some people are going round saying that they have discussed with Mr. President and he has given Ebonyi to PDP, and they are saying that Chief Nyesom Wike is their leader, and that Wike said the President has given Ebonyi to him.

“Ebonyi is not for sale. We are only holding ourselves because the people are with us. Nobody should push us because we have all it takes to consume whoever that is trying us; we have all it takes to destroy whoever that is trying us.

“We want to tell Mr. President that he has paid a price to deserve our votes. He gave us what we have never had in eastern Nigeria. He gave us the minister of works. And this minister of works is not sitting down, he is working” he stated.

Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, said President Bola Tinubu has done what no other president has done in Ebonyi State and the entire South East by expecting numerous projects across the state and the zone.

“Ebonyi State is a one-party state under Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. We are not going to make another mistake like the past three was an accident of history.

“President Bola Tinubu has done a lot not just for Ebonyi State, but for the entire South East and other geopolitical zones”, he said.

The event affected human and vehicular movements in the entire Abakaliki metropolis. There were heavy gridlocks on the major roads and adjoining streets in the capital city during the rally.