Adolphus Wabara, the acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, has urged Ndigbo not to rush into the 2023 election, stating that if the party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, wins, he will pass over power to them in 2031.
The former Senate President said this while giving a speech on Tuesday at the launch of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State.
He said, “There is no way Ndigbo could get the President. (During the PDP presidential primary) Ndigbo had 95 votes but only 14 were given to an Igbo aspirant, Anyim Pius Anyim.
“If you look at the logic, I get confused that Abia is confused. Let us go to where the president will emerge.
“We should use our brain to follow it. Let us show course when he has promised to hand over to an Igbo man.
“We should not be in a hurry, but he will do it. Let us begin now to look for the black goat now that it is daytime.
“Our overall leader is a man of God who will not victimise us”.
He asked all PDP candidates to embrace the slogan “Abia is PDP and PDP is Abia” and show it.
He pointed out that Nigeria has 18 presidential candidates and is not a one-party state, stating, “So, all must vote according to your conscience and according to party.
“PDP is the oldest party in Nigeria. If you look at our antecedents, you will understand what is happening in the party”.
Theodore Orji, a senator who represents Abia Central in the National Assembly and the South East Coordinator of the Campaign Council, declared that Abia would continue to be a PDP state while speaking to the members of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council and the Abia State Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign structure management committee during the inauguration.
He said, “We have a presidential candidate, Atiku and our brother, the vice presidential candidate and the sitting governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa.
“The party brought out our candidate and it is our duty to support him.”
Charles Ogbonna, the state coordinator for the Campaign Council in Abia, exhorted everyone to be devoted party members, saying, “I have seen the handwriting on the wall that Atiku is going to win.”