From Chinedu Nwafor, Abakaliki
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the duo of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, and the Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, have declared that the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has no place in the state.
Yilwatda and Nwifuru made the declaration at Pa Ngele Oruta Township Stadium Abakaliki during the endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid by the ruling APC in the state.
Both Yilwatda and Nwifuru dismissed the insinuation in some quarters that the Tinubu-led APC Federal Government had conceded Ebonyi to the opposition PDP in the 2027 general elections.
Dismissing the insinuation, Yilwatda said the state will not allow PDP to take any position in the forthcoming general elections in the state.
”We will return President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Francis Nwifuru as the Governor of Ebonyi State come 2027. We (also) want to return all the APC senators. We want to return all the House of Representatives, (and) all the House Assembly candidates in 2027.
”Nobody has conceded Ebonyi to PDP. If there was such a discussion, I should have been aware. 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 the entire South East through infrastructural transformation and human capital development.
Nwifuru, who said that the state has no other presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections other than Tinubu, declared that the state was totally an APC state, and vowed that the party will deliver the President in the state.
He said that Tinubu has paid a price for the state and deserves its total support for appointing Senator David Umahi as the Minister of Works, who he said has performed creditably well.
'”Ebonyi has no other presidential candidate other than President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and we will return 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 Mr. President has given Ebonyi to PDP and they are saying that Chief Nyesom Wike is their leader, and they are saying 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.
”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 a working Minister of Works,” he stated.
In his speech, Umahi said that Tinubu has done what no other President had done in the state and the entire South East by executing numerous projects across the state and the zone.
”Ebonyi State is one-party state under Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. We are not going to make another mistake like the past. That was an accident of history.
”President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done a lot – not just for Ebonyi State, but for the entire South East and other geopolitical zones,” he said.
The Chairman, Progressives Governors Forum and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma; Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, and their Enugu State counterpart, Governor Peter Mbah, who was represented by his Deputy, attended the event.
They all endorsed the re-election of Tinubu in their separate speeches, saying that his administration has benefited the South East region.
The former Governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi, moved a motion for the endorsement of Tinubu and Nwifuru, and it was seconded by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius.
The event attracted over 10,000 members and supporters of the APC from across the 13 LGAs of the state.