The Deputy Senate President and leading member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], Chief Ike Ekweremadu, has come under severe verbal attack by the South East zonal leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over comments credited to him in which he boasted that with his emergence as the deputy senate president, the South- East has been accommodated fully in the power distribution of the party.
Commenting on the issue on Tuesday in Abuja, National -Vice Chairman of APC in the South East, Hon. Emma Enukwu, told journalists that Senator Ekweremadu was not qualified to speak on the power distribution policy of the ruling party because he is an outsider when it comes to the internal affairs of the party.
He asserted that such comments credited to the Deputy Senate President only suggests that he is a selfish man who will like to be the only shining star from the region. Eneukwu reminded Ekweremadu he hails from the same Enugu State as he, that he only came to his present position by default after the failure of the leaders of the APC to quickly harmonize on the positions of the National Assembly.
He also advised his party, the APC, to be wary of the likes of Ekewremadu whom he said has been planted in his present position by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to destabilize the efforts of his party to consolidate and to ensure that come 2019 that there will be real elections in the South East as against what he described as the effort of the past administration to use the security agencies to write results to suit their purpose.
According to Eneukwu,“Ekweremadu should know that he is an outsider in the affairs of the APC, when they were in power, the APC never suggested to their party how to zone or distribute offices and positions, it was an entirely PDP affair, so he has no right whatsoever to suggest to our party what to do.
“The issue is that the Deputy Senate President wants to remain the only cock that crows in the South East. He has been in government for the past 12 years without any impact on the region he always rides on to positions. He became the deputy Senate president through the back door because the APC were divided on who becomes the Senate President but that should not give him the liverage now to suggest anything to the APC.
“I am quite aware that in the last election, PDP did everything humanly possible to manipulate the elections in the South East. There was no election in the South East, they wrote results and they succeeded in doing that because all the political apparatus, all the governors, the deputy senate president, the ministers were all from the PDP and so they were able to use the security agencies to bring in the electoral officials into a place where they wrote results. Now that they are going to play the role of an opposition, he is finding it difficult because he knows that in 2019 it will be very difficult for them to write results again. But he is fighting very hard to ensure that no high office is located to any other person in Igbo land, he wants to be the highest Igbo man in power so that he could use his position again to manipulate the results of the South East and that is why he said what he said and I am very happy that the President is aware that Sen. Ekweremadu is not a member of the APC and so cannot determine how positions will be distributed by the party.”
Enukwu further added that what Ekweremadu and the PDP are trying to do is to create an erroneous impression that the South East zone is for the PDP whereas he knows that the region is fast embracing the APC because they have seen that the people is the party that will truly liberate and develop the people.
He therefore posited that the APC must not be deceived into denying the South East their due in the affairs of the party which he insisted they have contributed much to build and nurture.
