Internal crisis has stalled the gubernatorial campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ebonyi.
A lengthy court battle between Senator Ifeanyi Ogba and Ifeanyi Odii has caused huge rift within the party despite the Supreme Court declaring Odii as the gubernatorial candidate of the party.
Sources said loyalists of the two political gladiators have refused to work together to ensure victory for the party in the 2023 election.
The rift has also stalled the inauguration of the party’s campaign council.
But speaking on the crisis rocking the party, Nwoba Chika Nwoba, the Publicity Secretary, Ebonyi PDP said issues are being resolved.
He said the gubernatorial candidate, Ifeanyi Odii is not playing a spoiler card on the PDP as being claimed by the Ogba supporters.
According to him, “there is no such thing as playing a spoiler card. It’s just an expression conjured by our opponents to corrupt the minds of our people ahead of time.
“We are now done with reconciliation. A few number of persons didn’t accept the reconciliation and left the party. The noticeable among them are not more than five in number. Although everybody is needed to win election, we don’t have such a divine effort to work on the mentality of some who have determined to leave. But we believe that in the cause of time, they’ll come back when they must have realised they took the wrong route.
“Done with reconciliation, we are now faced with constituting campaign council. After that, the council will now draw campaign timetable, and from there, the campaign takes off immediately. This is what affected the expected 23rd of November presidential campaign rally in Ebonyi. It may have to be rescheduled. From a discussion with the governorship candidate, in few days from today, the ground will be hit running. We want to collect power from the people holding it in error now and doing so requires that we take our time and study certain acts and technicalities of winning. We shouldn’t jump in and start campaigning. After all, we have from now till March, 2023 to run our campaigns”.
On the activities of the APC buying PVCs, Nwoba said that it’s simply an act in jeopardy.
“It’s an exercise in futility. Labour Party did exactly that in 2015, but did they later make use of it? When the time comes, everybody will know that they were just wasting their time.
“We should though continue to raise our voices against the act, but we should be assured that they’ll end up regretting why they spent time and resources doing so as done in 2015 by the Labour Party. We are doing a lot towards winning on the background. Patience is what we demand from party members and prospective voters”.
