From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Governorship aspirants under the platform of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) in Ebonyi Central Senatorial District, yesterday, berated their colleagues from the Northern Senatorial District for demanding that the 2023 gubernatorial ticket of the party be exclusively zoned to it.
Aspirants from Ebonyi North had recently met and demanded the governorship position exclusively in line with equity and fairness.
They argued that it was wrong for PDP to have zoned the ticket to Abakaliki bloc, comprising the Central and Northern Senatorial districts, as against the North where it started in 1999.
But Obinna Ogba, Igwe Nwagu, Anayo Edwin and Chris Usulor, all aspirants from Ebonyi Central in a joint communique dismissed the resolutions of the Ebonyi North aspirants, saying that senatorial district as basis for sharing gubernatorial positions was unknown to the state .
The communique which was jointly signed by the four Ebonyi Central aspirants kicked against micro zoning of ticket to Ebonyi North.
It described the position of aspirants from the North senatorial district as short cut and self serving alleging that they distorted facts and history out of fear of meeting Ebonyi people in the field.
“To market these false narratives to the people unchallenged, for us is a disservice to our people. The contents of the communique in the first place, are indeed, affront on the process that brought Ebonyi people together and which has been holding Ebonyi people together for ages.
“For the records and posterity, the agitation for the creation of Ebonyi State was anchored on a consensus arrangements between two major sets of people from Anambra/Enugu States on the other hand and their counterparts from Imo/Abia States on the other side of the divide. These different groups of people constituted what is known, recognized and addressed, from the onset, as people from Afikpo bloc and people from Abakaliki bloc. So, the term “bloc” which the authors of the communique want to be “jettisoned” has remained the distinguishing language and identity separating this two brothers. This identity has as well been serving as veritable bonds of unity and guidelines through which relationships are shared and sustained among this two interest groups since the creation of the state. Therefore the arrangements for Ebonyi creation was never pursued on senatorial interests but rather on bloc considerations.
“Thus, despite the later creation of senatorial zones and local governments, an average man from Afikpo bloc only sees an Izzi, Ezza or Ikwo etc person as indigenes of Abakaliki bloc and vice versa and not from the perceptual refraction of Ebonyi North/Central/south senatorial zone. This request by gubernatorial aspirants from Ebonyi North cannot erase existing history for parochial interests particularly when the founding fathers of the state are still alive.”