Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC), yesterday, warned the political actors in Enugu State to eschew any form of violence.
The warning came amidst claims of pre-election violence ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary elections.
OYC, in a statement by its President-General, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, said that there have been allegations of violent attacks among members of the PDP, especially during the elective congresses preceding the primary elections.
Okwu said Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had worked hard to entrench peace in the state and that nobody should return the state to the dark days.
ALSO, with about a week to the May 24 PDP governorship primaries, Ugwuanyi and other leaders of the party in the state, have been advised to be careful with the choice of the person, who will fly the party’s flag in the 2023 general election.
The advice was given in Enugu yesterday, by the president of the Enugu Youth Forum (EYF), Cosmas Udeh, while addressing journalists on the outlook of the forthcoming general elections.
He said: “Enugu can be called the PDP home in the South-East because there has not been any major threat to the party’s dominance since the return of democratic rule in 1999.”
According to him, one of the things, which will cause changes in the political space, is the choice of the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
“If our governor makes the mistake of yielding to certain clannish interests that are asking him to hand over power to a fellow Nsukka person, then the PDP will certainly be kicked out of power.
“This will be a terrible choice because the Enugu people cannot contemplate a situation where, after eight years of being in power, another Nsukka person will take over for another eight years.
“This will mean 16 years of uninterrupted Nsukka power.
“This is a complete negation of the principle of zoning and power rotation in the state, which the governor has championed with all his might to our people’s admiration.”
Udeh added that it would be a “contradiction” for the former senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremadu, to be schemed out from the gubernatorial election only for an Nsukka man to be anointed to succeed the governor.
“Each governor in our state has been succeeded by someone whom the sitting chief executive handpicked; but to attempt to hand over power from one Nsukka man, after eight years, to another Nsukka man for another eight years, will be impossible for our people to accept,” he said.
He, therefore, called on Ugwuanyi to disregard the advice of those he described as “dangerous and clannish sycophants, who want him to commit political suicide in the state.”
