From Petrus Obi, Enugu and Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
Former Senate president, Ken Nnamani and immediate past Speaker of Enugu House of Assembly, Eugene Odo, are among top politicians in the state who are expected to use the period of three weeks registration exercise which began yesterday in the South East to formalise their movement from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Nnamani and Odo will be following the footsteps of the former governor of Old Anambra, Senator Jim Nwobodo and wife of former PDP national chairman, Dorothy Nwodo, who had earlier cross carpeted from the PDP to APC.
Speaking with newsmen at the end of the party’s stakeholders meeting in Enugu yesterday, the state chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, maintained that APC’s door is wide open to all including Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The party chairman dismissed reports in some sections of the media that the party was not ready to admit Ekweremadu into its fold should the lawmaker indicate interest to do so.
He said the party will accommodate all genuine democrats and progressives in the state and South East in general ‘‘without any tariff.’’
The state APC publicity secretary, Mrs. Kate Offor, had earlier issued a controversial statement that the party will not admit Ekweremadu, urging him to stay put in the PDP to “clear the mess he contributed in no small measure in infesting the party with.”
Reacting to the Ekweremadu issue, a chieftain of the party in the state and Director-General, Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu said, “whereas, I agree with Chief Ben Nwoye that we open our doors to everybody, however, as a democrat, I do subscribe to the earlier statement of the chapter of our great party that distinguished Senator Ekweremadu should remain in the PDP to clear the mess.”
Meanwhile, a retired Major General of the Nigerian Army, Ogbonnaya Okoro, who joined the APC over the weekend said he became a member to enthrone needed change in Abia State in particular and the country in general.
Okoro said this in his country home, Ama-Oba Ime, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, when he declared for the APC and added that the 16 years rule of the PDP in the country was a failure.
The retired soldier stated that the PDP government has failed the people of the state, the South East and Nigerians. and stressed that APC has started correcting the wrongs perpetrated by the immediate PDP-led government. He said APC is the only hope and alternative where the people of the South East would be given a sense of belonging.