The leadership of the Southeast zone of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has vowed never to allow the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) take back Ebonyi State.
The party said its target in the 2023 general election was to win all states in the Southeast, starting from Abia and Enugu states.
Addressing reporters yesterday at the end of the party’s inaugural zonal meeting in Enugu, the National Vice Chairman (Southeast) of the party, Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu, expressed satisfaction about the judgment by the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu, which dismissed the suit filed to remove Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi.
The suit was filed by the candidate of the APC in the 2019 governorship election, Sonni Ogbuoji and his deputy, Justin Ogbodo Mbam, demanding that the court should declare the seats of Umahi and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, vacant on account of their defection from the PDP to the APC.
However, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice J. O. K. Oyewole last Friday, the court held that the appellants had no locus standi in their bid to supplant the respondents, adding that the constitution did not provide for their removal from office, although the defection of the governor and his deputy might appear immoral.
However, Arodiogbu said Southeast APC was happy with the outcome of the judgment and that it was part of its responsibility to defend the states under the party’s control in the region.
“Ebonyi is one of such states and we cannot let people come in through the back door and harass the governor,” he said.
Arodiogbu said the zonal office of the party had a target in the 2023 general election, which was to win all states in the Southeast, adding that the goal could not be achieved without the support of the people.
He urged residents in the Southeast to support the party, particularly in the coming elections, to attract more infrastructural development.
Arodiogbu said: “We are appealing to our brothers and sisters in the Southeast to support the government at the centre because it has brought massive infrastructure to the zone. There are a lot of good things to benefit if we support the party.”