The Ebonyi State Chapter Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) , Barrister Onyebuchi Ekuma, has stated that the Party will recapture Ebonyi State Government in next year’s general election.
He stressed that no amount of gimmicks and political manoeuvrings by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ebonyi State would affect the determination, formidability and focus of the Party towards clinching power come 2027.
The Chairman expressed hope that the Party will become stronger and formidable after the conduct of its congresses and national convention.
Disclosing this to journalists on Monday in Abakaliki, Barrister Ekuma, who announced that the congresses of the party will be taking place in couple of weeks ahead, said committees have been constituted to oversee the exercise.
According to him, what was holding the party’s internal organization is the congresses and convention, even as he vehemently dismissed any form of factions within the Party.
He said, ‘We’ve constituted the committees for the upcoming congresses. We’ve constituted the state zoning committee, state congress committee, and the micro-zonal zoning committee in the state. And these are the committees that oversee the affairs of the congresses as they come. And our congress is going in earnest to start next week. This week we have entered now, maybe a third or fourth’, he stated.
He remarked that after the congresses, the party would be further positioned to win future elections, since it remains an household name in Nigeria’s political landscape.
“Immediately we are done with our congresses ranging from the ward congresses to state congresses, zonal congresses and conventions, the party will kick-start. And I think having done that and our convention, that people will know that yes, that PDP remains the household party in Nigeria.” He added
He attested to the popularity of the party in Nigeria and its familiarization with the challenges confronting Nigerians, especially the grassroots.
“PDP is like an old woman, they say does not get aged in a dance she’s familiar with. PDP is the only party that knows the challenges that the people are facing down to the grassroots.
“There is no family you enter today in this country that you don’t have somebody, one or two, three persons that have sympathy for PDP, if they are not members of the party.
“Today, as I’m talking to you, people are still yearning and praying that PDP bounces back to what it used to be. And that work is underway. And it’s yielding fruit seriously.
“The only thing that is holding the party about internal organization we are going through now is our convention. There is no faction again in PDP. The judgments we’ve had so far have eliminated the issue of faction. So we have one PDP but now in Nigeria and the body we have now are capable of taking PDP to the Aso Villa come 2027”, he maintained.
He described those who are not showing genuine interest in the party as being far from reality, adding that those who have left PDP to other parties, still have their souls in the party.
“They are not for the party, they are just in between. The truth is this, at times we shy away from the reality. No matter where you are in this country, moving from one party to another, their heart is in PDP.
“They are just moving now to those parties for greener pastures because there are people that cannot endure hard times or endure when things are not moving the way they expect it to be. All of them, they know that their bigger family, their bigger political party is PDP.
“So all of them are hanging around, praying in their hearts for the party to get better, which the party is getting better now. They will soon, very soon, all of them will do a U-turn to PDP. They call me always and ask me what is happening and all these and that we should do everything, that we should do everything not to allow this party to go down”, he disclosed.
He concluded by saying that PDP remains the big umbrella and that the party is ready to accommodate meaningful people who are ready to contribute to the growth of the party.
“PDP is an umbrella that has the capacity to accommodate anybody or sundry as far as you are coming in to contribute for the betterment of the party. We are ready to receive them. We are ready to have any meaningful contribution anybody is coming to make, to make sure that the party moves forward’, he stressed.