The Nation Newspaper

Tag: abia

  • Community rejects institute’s director

    Community rejects institute’s director

    The people of Umuokahia Autonomous Community in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State have praised President Goodluck Jonathan, the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike and other key stakeholders who played significant roles in restoring the autonomous status of National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba allegedly proscribed four years ago by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

    They also called on both President Jonathan and the Supervising Minister of Education to resist attempts by “highly placed individuals” who they alleged were working assiduously to ensure that a former Director of the NINLAN under University of Nigeria, Nsukka Campus Prof. Clara Ikekeonwu was appointed a substantive director now that the institute has regained its autonomy.

    While addressing the management board of NINLAN Demonstration Nursery, Primary and Secondary school at his palace, the traditional ruler of Umuokahia community (a community that hosts NINLAN Demonstration Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools as well as NINLAN’s temporary campus), His Royal Highness (HRH) Eze Okey Ananaba called on the Supervising Minister of Education to distance himself from those championing the return of Prof. Ikekeonwu as the substantive director of the institute.

    Eze Ananaba recalled a stale relationship between the host community and the former director of the institute while it was merged with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka Campus. He alleged that the former director was running the institute as a personal business without even considering the interest of the host community.

    He said: “We the people of Umuokahia in Obingwa Local Government Area are happy with President Goodluck Jonathan, Nyesom Wike (education minister), Senators Nkechi Nwaogu, Enyinnaya Abaribe and Uche Chukwumerije, among others who played key roles in ensuring that NINLAN was demerged from UNN Nsukka Campus.

    “We are, however, urging the Supervising Minister of Education to distance himself from some persons who are campaigning for the re-appointment of Prof. Clara Ikekeonwu as the institute’s director now that the institute is autonomous.

    “Before Clara was appointed NINLAN director, we had good relationship with the institute, but things changed when she assumed office as the director. During her tenure as the executive director, she never visited this palace for one day.

    “Her relationship with this community until she left was nothing to write home about and so, we are opposed to any move by any person to appoint Prof. Clara the executive director of NINLAN now that the institute has regained its autonomy. Any move to re-appoint her outside the judgment of the Umuahia Federal High Court means that we will head back to court to ensure that the decision of the court is implemented,” the traditional said.

    While calling for the setting up of an audit panel of inquiry to investigate the activities of the former director, Eze Okey Ananaba appealed for the re-instatement of disengaged workers that were not paid their entitlement since 2007, appointment of a substantive director that will carry the community along in the scheme of things, employment opportunities for citizens of the area and full implementation of Umuahia Federal High Court judgment on suit No. FHC/UM/CS/84/2007.

    Earlier in an address, Dr. Patricia Ijioma who visited the palace in company of other members of staff revealed that they were on the familiarisation tour to introduce the newly members of the constituted governing board of the school to the royal father and to inform him that NINLAN has regained its autonomy from the UNN.

    Mrs. Ijioma, soliciting the co-operation of the royal father with the management of the school, expressed hope that their visit would further strengthen the institution’s relationship with its host community.

    Recall that the Federal Government, in a bid to promote the teaching and learning of Nigerian local Languages, in 1993 through the Ministry of Education headed by Prof. Babatunde Aliyu Fafunwa, had established Nigerian French Language Village (NFLV), Badagry Lagos State, Nigerian Arabic Village (NAV), Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State and National Institute for Nigerian Languages, along Ogbor Hill New Umuahia Road, Umuokahia Autonomous Community Abia State respectively, with only NINLAN out of the lot being backed by Decree 117, now Act 117) that empowers it to fulfill the objectives for which it was set up.

  • Abia, Boko: Arewa, State Police, idiocy and us

    Some of my police – hating friends are still convalescing from a brand of shock last week what I defined to them as the injuries of idiocy. That idiocy is disability to see deep down through, right to the bottom of public policy or advocacy. The irrepressible Tai Solarin and Akin Aguda lent themselves to this danger in the movement of the Federal capital from Lagos to Abuja, believing the reasons for the relocation were pure as stated. President Ebele Jonathan fell for it in the campaign to prevent Nigeria’s 36 states from having their police forces, as the regions had in the First Republic. On Tuesday last week, the president must have had second thoughts when about 500 men from the northern Nigeria traveling in a 35-bus convoy were arrested at about 03.00am by soldiers at a road-block in Abia State. Two of the buses escaped into the dead of the night. Coming within 48 hours after the foiling of attempts by Boko Haram to bomb five churches in Owerri was foiled, the arrests fueled speculations that the 500 men were Boko Haram soldiers. The fear aligns with recent threats by Boko Haram that it would bomb oil installations in Port Harcourt and other parts of the Niger Delta. Northern leaders and youths immediately described the arrests as infringements on the right to free movement claiming the suspects were heading for Port-Harcourt in search of jobs. An attempt to free the suspects on bail has failed. And detectives have claimed one of the suspects was a key Boko Haram terrorist wanted by Nigeria’s Federal government and the United States. With that, the rest of the story-line can be pinned together. One fraction of the evolving story-line is that they were heading for Oron and, from there, the Cameroun border to pick arms, which are no longer readily available in the Nigeria’s northern border with Chad and Niger Republic.

    I suspect that, if they are Boko, their mission may include Bayelsa State, home state of President Jonathan. What better prize, apart from Abuja, would Boko have claimed for itself if it could blast Bayelsa real hard to tell the world a president who couldn’t defend his own village couldn’t be president of Nigeria? Psychologically, that would be bad not only for the President and his kith and kindred back in Bayelsa State, but the rest of the country. I suspect that, with that, mass movements would begin across the country, everyone to his or her own tent in his or her own native land. And this may be yet a drizzle foreboding a stormy rainfall ahead.

    With these events last week, it became clear to more people in the south of Nigeria, the ostriches and the doubting Thomases, that Nigeria is at war, a brand of civil war different from the classical civil war, and that many people down south have not seen this unfolding picture for what it is. Last week, this column described the ostrich as a stupid animal. When it senses or sees danger in its environment, it buries its head in the sand. It believes if it cannot see the danger, the danger cannot see it. As for doubting Thomases, they are people who see heavy clouds in the sky, do not believe it would rain, even lightning and thunder, in love, give them the final warnings and time to seek shelter. Last week, this column also published from the column of Gbogungboro in the The Nationon May 29, 2014. It suggests the north of Nigeria is under instruction from Sultan of Sokoto Ahmadu Bello to make Nigeria an extension of Uthman Dan Fodio’s empire by using the Middle Belt region to prevent the south from pursuing its destiny and making it a slave of the north. That charge, said to be in a speech of the Sultan 11 days after Nigeria’s independence from Britain, was quoted as follows in Gbogungboro  May29 2014 column in The Nation as stated:

    ‘Someday, some bright historians will reveal to the world the causes and details of this most unfortunate turn in Hausa-Fulani attitudes to the political development of Nigeria. Much of what we know is encapsulated in the statement credited to Sir Ahmadu Bello, the leader of the Hausa-Fulani political elite, only 11 days after the day of independence. This new country called Nigeria, ‘he was reported to have said, ‘should be an extension of the empire of our great-grandfather Othman dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of government. We used the peoples of Middle Belt as willing tools and the peoples of the South as conquered territory, and never let them rule over us, and never let them control their own future’.

    That is the path that Hausa-Fulani politics has pursued ruthlessly since then. The central piece of it is to hold the power of the federal government by all means, and to use it to subdue the other peoples of Nigeria, in order to mould Nigeria into a de facto Fulani empire- what some now call a ‘sultan-state.

    From this, the slogan, BORN TO RULE, which many southern people find objectionable has legitimacy in the northern script! So does Boko Haram, inherent in any public advocacy or debate is an item of this script. So, when the police road-blocks were dismantled, and many southerners rejoiced, did they look deep to the bottom of the ban? I remember telling my friends it was better for policemen to collect bribes at those check-points if their presence would deter criminals and enable us all sleep like babies at night. I said so, mindful of the claim that the police are armed robbers. But did we think that, if they did, they couldn’t do so from their barracks? In berating the police, we seem not to remember the social interchange theory. The police are not from planet Mars. They are bonafide members of our society. If we are corrupt, so will they. In the North-East, where it is most active, Boko Haram has exploited inadequate policing to great advantages. We saw the value of adequate policing when the traditional hunters of Borno took it upon themselves to police their towns and villages: Boko Haram activity stalled for a while. Those 35 bus loads of Boko Haram suspects from the north would not have moved as freely and as swiftly as they did if there were enough policemen on all the routes which yielded it free passage and one of the ways to do this is to let the states set up their own police forces.

  • Abia in Diaspora urged to respond to challenges at home

    Abia in Diaspora urged to respond to challenges at home

    The Rector, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Sir Allwell Onukaogu has urged indigenous people of Abia State resident in the United States of America and other countries to join forces design a blueprint that will address what he called “the dangers at home”.
    Onukaogu delivered a lecture at the 2014 Biennial Convention of Ohuhu Progressive Union in Houston, United States of America, noting that youth restiveness, thuggish behaviour, armed robbery, religious extremism and other social vices prevalent among youths in the country could be drastically minimised only if indigenous Abia people and other Igbo citizens would come home and invest meaningfully.

    “You people should come home and invest to ensure the rapid transformation and development of your fatherland. Your investment at home could serve as a tool to take thousands of jobless youths off the streets, thereby helping in not only to solve some of the current security and social challenges facing the country, but also bringing to an end the exodus of our youths from Nigeria to other countries in the erroneous belief that they are seeking for greener pastures.”
    He said Abia is now a safe haven for business and other economic activities, adding, “I know Ohuhu people are great academicians and bureaucrats. Very few are gifted in business endeavors that can compare with what the people of Nnewi can do, but it is no excuse. We can attract genuine foreign investors into our land. You can join forces within yourselves and cooperate with others to attract industries to our land. Our home is peaceful; more peaceful and safer than Onitsha commercial areas where expatriates are being convinced to invest. You are more knowledgeable than those of us at home in international Politics and Economics. You must use these meetings of yours to fashion out economic plans and strategies to redress the dangers at home by establishing industries that will endure,” the guest speaker noted.

    Lamenting on the economic loss and the damage the ugly trend of “medical tourism” has done to Nigeria’s economy and health sector, Onukaogu in his paper called for the establishment of state the art hospitals across the country to carter for any medical case(s) that would warrant Nigerians seeking for medical assistance abroad as he noted that such medical cases and stress inherent with such medical trip can be reduced and treated in the country with less cost if facilities for treating such ailment could be accessed in Nigeria.
    “You can invest in hospitals like the Indians. Our people who travel to India stay in hotels, sometimes for over a month and pay bills to obtain quality health care. They can be willing to pay far less if such facilities are to be established at home. I know we have great medical doctors with the zeal to serve, but who are unduly manacled and encumbered by lack of state of the art facilities.
    “You don’t need to be a medical doctor before you can setup a good hospital. What you need is to mobilize funds, equip the hospital with state of the art facilities with well trained medical staff. “I believe that with time such hospital will grow not just like the famous Indian Hospital, but will go a long way to save Nigerians the billions of money they spend annually on visa and other expenses going abroad for medical treatment. I have continually read about, sometimes even a group of our Nigerian brothers and sisters from the Diaspora come home with a team of doctors to perform surgeries for our people. I have been in receipt of containers of books shipped from abroad by Nigerians, including you people as contribution towards the development of institutions. All of these are good; very good and must be commended, but you could do more,” Onukaogu stated
    Abia Poly rector who is also a Knight and lay President Methodist Church Nigeria, Umuahia East Diocese further called on Ndi-Igbo in Diaspora to imbibe the spirit of Jewish-Americans noted that such relationship with their host country and community could attract development in Igbo land and foster a strong tie between Nigeria and Americans as is the case between Israel and America today.

    In his remarks the President Ohuhu Development Union International, Mr. Ginikanwa Okedi thanked the Sir Onukaogu for honouring their invitation and for inspiring the audience with his lecture, assuring him that Ndi-Igbo and Ohuhu indigenes in Diaspora would work assiduously to improve and better the lots of their people at home.
    Okedi while assuring that they would work to create and maintain good relation with their host country, expressed their willingness to invest in their home state (Abia) and to key into the overall transformation agenda of the Abia State government led by Sir Theodore Ahamefule Orji.

  • Abia distributes laptops, exercise books to schools

    Abia distributes laptops, exercise books to schools

    Abia State government has distributed 1,778 laptops to 216 secondary schools to make the pupils Information and Computer Technology (ICT)-compliant.

    It also distributed over two million exercise books to primary schools in the 17 local governments, urging parents and guardians to send their children and wards to school, as it is free.

    Speaking in Umuahia when distributing the items, Governor Theodore Orji said his administration was determined to invest more in education, having seen its dividends.

    He said his government was aware of the challenges in the sector, adding that the state should not be left behind.

    Orji said: “The world is in the era of science and technology and Imo cannot be left behind. That was why government bought laptops from the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] for the pupils.”

     

  • Soldiers arrest 486 Northerners in Abia

    Soldiers arrest 486 Northerners in Abia

    A group of 486 Nigerians travelling in 35 buses from the North to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, were held by the military in Abia State.

    The suspects were stopped at about 2.00a.m yesterday between Arungwa Junction on the Enugu, Port Harcourt Expressway and Imo Gate, the Abia/Rivers boundary. Their vehicles were halted but two of the buses slipped away.

    The men aged between 16 years and above, have been detained by the military at the 144 Battalion of Asa, near Aba, Abia State.

    Abia State Commissioner for Information Eze Chikamayo, accompanied by Commander of the 144 Battalion, Lt.-Col. Rasheed Omolori, paraded the suspects before reporters yesterday.

    Lt.-Col. Omolori, said a report had been sent to the army headquarters in Abuja.

    Col. Omolori however declined further comments on the arrest, saying any further information should be from his bosses at the Army headquarters.

    The commissioner said that the suspects were moving in a motorcade of 35 Toyota Haice buses [Hummer buses] when they were intercepted; adding that two buses escaped before they could be stopped.

    Chikamnayo further explained that preliminary investigations by the army showed that the suspects, aged from 16 years and above, were travelling from Kano, Taraba and Jigawa states.

    He said further investigation would help to unravel the true mission of the suspects who, he said, claimed to be travelling to Port Harcourt to look for jobs and wondered how such a large number of youths could be travelling in search of job.

    The Abia state commissioner said that the movement was suspicious, wondering how the long motorcade could have travelled the long distance from the north to the east before being apprehended.

    He commended the army and other security agencies for being alive to their responsibility and urged their counterparts in other states to rise to the challenge, in view of the spate of insecurity in the country.

    Some of the vehicles registration numbers’are: Jigawa RNG 98XA; Osun RLG 176XA; Kano AF 411 DAL; Lagos BDG 487 XK; Abuja EP 86 ABC and Bauchi ZAK 48 XA. The buses were impounded.

     

  • Abia CLO condemns clampdown on media

    Sunny Nwankwo

    The swoop on the media at the weekend by soldiers has continued to draw reactions from Nigerians. The Chairman, Civil Liberty Organisations (CLO), Abia State Chapter Prof. Charles Chinekezi has condemned the action, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to call the army authorities to order to avoid a future occurrence.

    Chinekezi who was speaking with journalists in Aba, the commercial nerve of the state, described the military action as the “height of irresponsibility and anti-democracy”, stressing that such action could truncate Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

    ”For me, what has happened is the height of irresponsibility on the side of whoever that was involved; whether the military or government. Whoever was the brain behind that action is anti-democracy. That person, group or organization is anti-democratic and we cannot go on with people like that. The CLO condemns it in the strongest term and brand such people, irresponsible Nigerians. They are people that want to truncate democracy.”

    He added “democracy that is available in Nigeria today was only obtained through the efforts of media organizations, writers who use only paper on pen and mere speech to try to remodel the society up to the level it has gotten to today. And how can we now accept anybody to truncate our democracy; be him a soldier, policeman, secret service agent, public servant or top government functionary who now want to staple the operational methodology of the Nigerian press? That person we cannot tolerate and we will go to any extent and whoever in this action wants to terminate the democracy in Nigeria.”

    “Look at the level of trauma, disorganization that we are suffering in the hands of insurgents called Boko Haram and the trouble Nigeria is suffering in the international community. Look at the level of economic and political trouble we are going through inside our country at present and somebody is now targeting to destroy the press, how far can that person go? He asked

    Reacting on the statement issued and signed by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Chris Olukolade on why the military confiscated and stopped the circulation and sales of The Nation and other newspapers across the country on Friday, the civil right activist asked “What type of routine check would warrant soldiers to invade media houses and stopped paper circulation, what kind of routine check is that? Where has that kind of check ever been conducted before? If for example, the military had anything to inquire for, don’t they how to meet the editors, publishers among others to have a personal chat with them and also inquire to be helped in a particular area of information? Why should they take the extreme measure of invading their offices?

    Continuing he stated; “the intention of whoever that is carrying out such nefarious activity is to stifle or reduce the effectiveness of the free flow of information. That is the only target they have, but I want to assure them that they have failed. It cannot deter the genuine process and the objective principles of objective and professional journalism and we will not be intimidated by anybody. We cannot be deterred. It is unfortunate that we will be talking this type of issue by now, it is very unfortunate. That is not the duty we send them to do.

    “The duty we send them to do is to help and curb the level of insurgency that is rearing its ugly head in the north which is trying to disintegrate or disorganise Nigeria. They should know that by their action, they are trying to threaten National security by threatening the security of the press.

    They want to destroy newspaper and mass media business and investment. They want to also destroy people’s carrier and government by extension. What they are doing is evil. Even in the draconian Abacha government and all the military juntas that have passed, we have gone through all these things. We have known the methodologies and I am advising the executive president to call whoever that is behind this action to order. He has a duty as the president of this country to call this people to order because they have crossed the Rubicon and are now going haywire and we cannot accept that, the CLO Abia chapter chairman stated.

  • Abia PDP too strong to lose, says Orji

    Abia PDP too strong to lose, says Orji

    Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke

    Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has affirmed the Peoples Democratic Party’s strength in the state in the run-up to its national mini-convention at which it will ratify the party’s national chairman, Adamu Mua’azu.

    Speaking with newsmen in Umuahia his return from a caucus meeting of the party in Abuja, Orji said the party is still the one to beat in the coming general elections next year.

    Orji who has been a member of the PDP caucus said that the discussed the issue of the forth coming national convention where it is expected that the position of the national chairman will be ratified and the plans for the forthcoming elections will be unveiled.

    The governor said that there is need for the ratification of Mu’azu as the PDP national chairman since his short tenure has brought peace to the party and reconciliation has been ongoing, “Therefore ratifying his office will strengthen the party and bring more confidence to the members”.

    He said that since the new national chairman assumed office, “There has been absolute peace and harmony in the party, as he has been carrying everyone along and the confidence of the party members has returned, thereby making the party stronger”.

    Orji, who was bestowed with the honour as the agric governor of the year by AgricExpos West Africa, said that the award was given to him during the agric exposition where agricultural produce of the state and other states were exhibited.

    The governor said that the award made him to be a proud Abian and more determined to improve on the agricultural production of the state, stressing that the state is blessed with many agricultural produce.

    He maintained that his administration is poised to bring back all the native foods that are being neglected, pointing out that such foods which, “Our people need such farm produce which has been neglected as they are better and good to the body, as our fore fathers lived longer on such food stuff”.

    Orji said that his government has done well for the people of the state especially as it concerns agriculture, stressing that a lot of people have been empowered through the liberation farms that have been established all over the state.

    The governor said that he is following the footsteps of President Goodluck Jonathan in the agricultural agenda, as Mr President has stopped the issue of fertilizer scandal which has tended to destroy the agriculture sector.

    He said that the President has done well in the agriculture sector through the introduction of dry farming and approved the sum of N1 billion to be given to farmers, adding that such move will help to increase food production and security.

  • Abia PFN condemns Chibok girls’ forced conversion

    The Abia State chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has condemned the reported forceful conversion to Islam of the Chibok schoolgirl abducted by Boko Haram on April 14.

    The body described it as a barbaric act and gross violation of the girls’ fundamental human rights.

    A recent video clip released by the insurgents who claimed responsibility for the abduction, showed the girls mostly Christians prior to their kidnapping, dressed in hijab and reciting Islamic incantations apparently being teleguided.

    In a press statement signed by the chairman of the state chapter of the PFN, Rev. Dr. Theophilus Anyimson, and made available to the press, the Christian body renewed its earlier call for a global action against the Islamic fundamentalists and their sponsors.

    The Abia PFN said that the conversion by coercion is a sin both against humanity and “God who has always given man the right to make choices in any matter especially as they concern the issue of religion”.

    The PFN group said, “Kidnapping and converting Christians to Islam by force is an affront to Christianity which cannot be accepted ,” and called on the international community to stand up against the evil tide which they said is capable of plunging Nigeria into religious crisis if not checked .

    The Christian group also called on the international community to see the heinous act of forceful conversion of the schoolgirls to Islam against their wishes as war crime, and ensure the perpetrators are brought to book.

    The statement read in parts, “The abduction of the innocent schoolgirls is a crime condemnable by all but more criminal is their forceful conversion to a strange religion contrary to their faith.

    “Even God does not compel anyone to repent, repentance has always been by choice, and anyone who claims God has commanded him to make converts by force is suffering from religious malady”.

    Abia PFN however expressed faith in the on- going efforts by the Federal Government in partnership with some foreign assistance to rescue the girls, however, called on Christians all over the country not to relent in prayers until  the girls are released.

    The Christian body vowed to persist in prayers until the abducted girls are rescued and returned to their families.

    It also assured Christians in the northern parts of the country who are often targets of Boko Haram of the continued prayers of the church to bring their ordeal to an end.

  • Orji and job opportunities in Abia

    Phony claim is one unattractive phenomenon that has been established in the country by persons with distasteful character, which invariably contributes to the lacklustre situation the citizens have found themselves.

    This scenery of making bogus claims where none perhaps exists is one feature that can be seen in the Abia State Governor, Theodore Ahamefule Orji.

    Just recently, the governor audaciously informed the world that he would make sure that his ‘transformation agenda’ for the state is completed before he leaves office in 2015, even though that he had accepted that about 80% of the population in the state are jobless.

    In an interview with a national paper April 05 2014, the governor brazenly said: “Employment by government is not easy because the fund is not there. So, providing employment through government agencies like the civil service is very limited. A lot of people are unemployed; if you go through government agencies, it will only take a limited number of youths but then they have to live and they have to move forward.”

    While Gov. Orji is still using feint perhaps in order to mislead the suspecting and unsuspecting peoples of Abia State and, by extension the entire Nigerian populace, it would behove on the masses to note that Abia State is one state affirmed in the country that has refused to manage its huge Federal Allocation amounting to N54b annually; Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) estimated at N48b naira annually and, N64b collected from the federal account between January and December 2012. This money has been collected by the Abia State government.

    Analysts have said that this implies that the state has garnered more money in the year 2013 to 2014. Such allocations as Excess Crude Account, Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), Domestic Crude Account, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refund and foreign exchange discrepancies for oil producing states are not accounted for.

    An account by one ASOPADEC Chairman, Mr. Samuel Nwogu, had revealed: “The Commission derives its funding from the 13 per cent derivation. If Abia State gets 13 per cent, the law permits the state government to give ASOPADEC 30 per cent of the derivation fund. So it is with this 30 per cent from the derivation fund that the Commission did all we have achieved since 2010. From inception, the governor directed the Ministry of Finance to release our funds as at when due because it is statutory.”

    It is certain today that the governor is boasting of making kidnapping disappear in the state. He had told newsmen that his critics and political opponents thought that it would not be easy. What is amiss is that with the skill and level the governor said that he had made kidnapping to disappear from the state, he could not make unemployment to disappear from the state as well, even upon the huge funds that the state grabs monthly and annually.

     

    By Odimegwu Onwumere,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

     

  • ‘First Lady won’t impose candidate on Abia’

    ‘First Lady won’t impose candidate on Abia’

    The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State chapter, Senator Emma Nwaka has described the story making the rounds that the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan wants to impose the next governor in the state as false.

    Nwaka said as the state chairman of the party, such a case has never been brought to his table.

    He pointed out that when the time for the next governor of the state is due, such a person must come through the party’s primaries and nothing less.

    He spoke with our correspondent in Umuahia.

    Nwaka said the PDP, at all levels, is a political party that believes in internal democracy, since it has a system of choosing those who will fly its flag in any elective position.

    Nwaka further said President Jonathan and his wife Dame Patience are democrats and have always been firm believers in fair and credible election based on ‘one man one vote’ which has been entrenched in the party’s political system.”

    He said: “Even when the PDP loses an election through a court pronouncement in any part of the country, President Jonathan is always the first person to congratulate the winner without minding which political party the winner comes from. Is that not how a true democrat operates?” he asked.

    Senator Nwaka also said since he became the party’s chairman, the state governor, Chief Theodore Orji and his wife Mercy have never interfered in the running of the party.

    “I wonder how any right-thinking person would say that the wife of the President wants to impose a candidate on the state,” he said.

    Nwaka further explained that he has been an advocate of level-playing ground for all those who want to contest any elective post, adding that the only way to do this is to stand on the path of truth and nothing else.

    He said: “If I as chairman of the party in the state and the governor and his wife do not interfere in who gets what in our party, I wonder how the wife of the President wants to impose a governorship candidate on the party and the state.”

    The Abia PDP chief described the story as funny which is aimed at distracting the party, stressing that the wife of the President has never interfered in the running of the party in the state or in any state of the federation.

    Nwaka said the process of selecting who gets any elective position in the country is made clear by the constitution and any candidate who is to be sponsored will be done by the party after going through screening.

    Reacting, a PDP stakeholder in Item Ward “C” and the state Commissioner for Special Services, Legal and Due Process, James Kwubiri Okpara, said the issue of who becomes the next governor of Abia State will be determined by the people of the state, the party and the incumbent governor.