From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The Chancellor of Gregory University Uturu (GUU), Professor Gregory Ibe has threatened to drag the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abia chapter to court for putting his name among it’s aspirants in the Wednesday primaries.
PDP had included the name of Ibe as one of its aspirants in the primaries where he was said to have scored six votes.
In a release signed by Sleek Ogwo on behalf of the Prof Gregory Ibe Media Associates (ProGIMA), Ibe said
for the purpose of emphasis, he ceased to be a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on March 30, 2022 and couldn’t have participated in the party’s governorship primaries of May 25, 2022.
The release read in part, “We have observed with distaste the disdainful antics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to attempt to accord credibility and authenticity to their recently held governorship primaries in Abia State by sneaking in the name of Prof Gregory Ibe among the list of contestants in the election.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Prof Gregory Ibe formally resigned his membership of the PDP through a letter dated March 30, 2022, addressed to the Abia State Chairman of the Party, which was appropriately delivered and acknowledged by the Chairman of Achara Mbaugwu Ward 7 in Isuikwuato Local Government Area.
“He subsequently took up membership with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and thereafter joined the governorship race under the banner of the Party.
“It is important to point out that apart from receiving the PDP expression of interest form collected by a group of friends for him, and subsequent public declaration on 9th March 2022, Prof Ibe didn’t fill or return any nomination form to the party, and neither did he participate in the governorship screening exercise, which from all intents and purposes remain a sine qua nun for all contestants.
“One therefore wonders how the name of Prof Ibe, who since making the widely publicized declaration titled “Message of Hope and Direction” on Easter Sunday 17 April 2022, has since moved on with his bid to realize ‘A New Abia’ under the APGA platform would resurface in the result sheet of PDP governorship primaries but for the handiwork of mischief makers whose chief aim is to accord legitimacy and acceptability to a failed exercise through the ingenuity of name dropping also known in the Abia political lexicon as ‘gamjism’”.
The release enjoined leaders of PDP in Abia state to take steps to correct the misinformation, failure of which it said Prof Ibe will compelled to seek redress in court.