The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Chijioke Edeoga, Labour Party (LP) candidate in the 2023 governorship poll, of “spreading propaganda” to demarket Peter Mbah, the governor of Enugu.
In a statement released on Thursday, Nnamdi Nwafor, Enugu-east zonal chairman of the PDP, claimed that Edeoga is spreading falsehood about the governor.
Nwafor said Edeoga, in a meeting with Julius Abure, national chairman of the LP, on Wednesday in Abuja, alleged that he was “rigged out” in the 2023 election.
Nwafor said Edeoga “lacked the honour and justification to make such fallacious claims”.
“As a party, we did not want to flog a man that has already kissed the ground, hence, our decision not to gloat over our victory after the supreme court judgement upholding governor Peter Mbah’s election, knowing that Edeoga was never a match to our candidate and now governor,” the statement reads.
“For the record, Edeoga was a signatory to a pact by PDP governorship aspirants of Enugu-east extraction wherein they covenanted to support any among them endorsed by the former governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the party.
“In Clause 5 of that pact signed during a meeting co-initiated by Edeoga himself at the palace of the Chairman of the Enugu East Senatorial Zone Traditional Rulers Council in Nike on 19th May 2022 and co-signed by the traditional rulers of the zone, Edeoga and other aspirants committed to accord ‘respect to the Governor of Enugu State and acceptance of his choice of a candidate from this group in the best interest of Enugu East Senatorial Zone and Enugu State at large’.
“However, Edeoga breached the written accord by not only going ahead to contest the primary election where he secured only nine votes against Mbah’s 709 votes, but also reneged on his personally-issued statement after the party primary in which he pledged support for Dr. Mbah as the best candidate to transform Enugu State and urged his supporters to equally do the same.
“Like an unfaithful bride, he eloped to the LP to take advantage of Obi’s surging popularity in the South East region.”
Nwafor accused Edeoga of “resorting to whipping up sectional sentiments and launching heinous propaganda to demarket Mbah when he saw he could not match the PDP candidate in pedigree, competence, and capacity”.
The PDP chieftain added that it is “shameless and irresponsible” of Edeoga to claim to have “been rigged out” after he was “roundly” defeated in the election.
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