Magnus Eze, Enugu
Enugu State Chapter of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has denied that some people carried a mock coffin of former Chairman of Nsukka Local Government Area, Mr. Patrick Omeje, to the country home of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
State Chairman of NYCN, Henry Atigwe, who stated this in Enugu, yesterday, described the mock coffin carrying story as rumours and the handiwork of disgruntled politicians.
Atigwe said those behind the story were politicians who were not bold enough to participate in the rancour-free process adopted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in in producing candidates for the party in the state.
“I don’t know where that one is coming from,” he said of the mock coffin story. “We heard that some people staged a protest majorly on the social media. For youths of Enugu, we are totally behind the Governor and we thank him for seeing that over 95 per cent of the chairmanship candidates of PDP are youths. We are, therefore, calling on other political parties to also give their tickets to youths. We applaud Governor Ugwuanyi for really involving youths in governance in Enugu state,” Atigwe said.
Meanwhile, a deluge of reactions have trailed the purported protest against Omeje’s candidature.
His supporters, yesterday, drummed support for his candidature in Nsukka. They lauded the governor, and insisted that Omeje was the people’s choice and that no amount of blackmail would change their support for him.
A magistrate court sitting in Enugu North Local Government Area,on Monday, remanded eight persons in prison custody for allegedly carrying a mock coffin of Omeje around parts of Nsukka alleging he was imposed as a chairmanship candidate on them in the forthcoming local government election.