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By Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued Governor Francis Nwifuru a 24-hour ultimatum to retract his remarks against the opposition in the state.
Nwifuru had ordered newly elected council chairmen in the state to deal mercilessly with any opposition elements in their areas who try to “mess up”.
The governor made the declaration on Tuesday while swearing in the council chairmen.
“Campaign has been declared open for the National Assembly. So, as you are going back to your local governments, what you should be talking about is our party, APC to win all the elections.
“We cannot leave any position to any other political party, we will win 100% for the general election. Go and tell the opposition this.
“Opposition said we are threatening them. We have not started our campaign and they are complaining, we will threaten you when the time comes.
“So, nobody is threatening you, we are stating the facts and we are willing to follow our words with actions. We are not mincing words about delivering our party, we are politicians. We must speak for our party and we must deliver our party.
“I pity those who are here with us as informants and they are discussing us. We are not speaking in secrets, we are above that. We are the only party functioning here and we are not mincing words about it,” the governor said.
Addressing journalists in Abakaliki, the state capital, on Wednesday, the state Chairman and state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Chukwuma Igwe and Darlington Onwe, said Nwifuru has 24 hours to withdraw the remarks or face legal action.
“We are alerting the whole world that Governor Francis Nwifuru has come again because everyone heard what happened in Ezza South and Ohaukwu Local Government areas of the state where somebody was killed because he endorsed another political party.
“We are going to write to all the security agencies and human rights organisations that this is what is happening in Ebonyi State.
“We are not violent, we are going to explore all legal means to protect ourselves even if it means going to court.
“The fundamental objective of government is to protect lives and property, and where a government resorts to issuing threats and also advancing to sponsoring such threats, that government has failed.
“And therefore, it is a very big shame to the present Ebonyi State government and to Nwifuru for making such utterances.
“The governor has 24 hours to withdraw his inflammatory remarks, else, we are going to explore every channel possible to ensure that any action resorting to fatality or carriage of that particular threatening violence is met with an equal and opposite reaction,” Igwe and Onwe said.
