Quit politics of desperation, support zoning, HURIWA tells Ekweremadu

HUMAN Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, asked the former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, to quit politics of desperation and support zoning.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, asked Ekweremadu to support zoning and withdraw from the governorship race in Enugu State.

The rights group said Ekweremadu is already a statesman and a global leader, and shouldn’t be associated with the local political mudslinging that some of his campaign officials and hack writers are manifesting.

The group advised Ekweremadu not to allow what looks like unbridled desperation for the office of the governor to push his campaign team into sponsoring falsehood against the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

HURIWA urged Ekweremadu to call his campaign team to order. It added that he would be destabilising the peace, so far, enjoyed in Enugu political space because it is not the turn of his zone, Enugu West, to govern the state.

HURIWA wondered why Igbo leaders, including the former deputy senate president, have been campaigning vigorously for power shift to the South East but only for him, who should be aspiring for higher office, to abandon power rotation in his home state of Enugu, as if what is good for the Igbo, at the national level, is not good for the people of Enugu.

HURIWA noted that it is the turn of Enugu East Senatorial Zone to produce the next governor of the state and that zoning has been part of Enugu politics since the return of democracy in 1999.

The group’s statement followed the inaccurate and unsubstantiated alarm raised by Ekweremadu’s campaign group, Ikeoha Campaign Organisation, over alleged persecution of its supporters in Enugu.