…leaves Buhari House disappointed
BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu’s efforts to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) after dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over failure to clinch the party’s gubernatorial ticket for Enugu state may have suffered a setback with the rejection of his conditions by the APC leadership.
Recall that the five times PDP senator had his defection bid stalled by his Mpu Ward in Enugu West as his condition to join the APC was rejected.
Ekweremadu was said to have demanded that the APC Governorship ticket be handed to him, a request the party hierarchy in the state did not accept.
The Enugu born politician, who saw the zoning formula for governorship position in the state as a ploy to deny him the chances of governing the state in 2023, withdrew from the Party’s primary.
The serving Senator who pledged to quit the Senate at the end of his fifth term has met with some APC leaders including the chairman of the Abuja chapter in a plot to move his followers to the party as the Governorship candidate to wrestle power from the ruling PDP in 2023.
The APC had before now Uche Nnaji as a consensus candidate for the 2023 gubernatorial election in Enugu State and the defection of Ekweremadu to the party with the attendant demand to be handed the Governorship ticket was not accepted by the members of his Ward which made it difficult for his acceptance at both the state and national levels.
However, the lawmaker was at the Buhari House National Secretariat of the party on Monday in continuation of the pursuit of both the defection and the party’s gubernatorial ticket for 2023.
Authoritative sources at the Party’s Secretariat disclosed to The Point that the former Deputy Senate President was not able to have his demand as the APC leadership was skeptical about handing him the party’s gubernatorial ticket for Enugu State when already Nnaji had been elected by consensus as the Party’s candidate.
Our sources further said the National Working Committee of the party does not want to create any form of crises in the party and therefore could not consider stepping down Nnaji for him.
Ekweremadu refused to grant interview with the media after the meeting with the APC National Chairman, Sen Abdullahi Adamu.
