The Igbo Elders Consultative Forum yesterday hailed the decision of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to resign from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the opposition party’s presidential primary. Chairman Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who addressed newsmen in Abuja on current political developments as well as the security situation in the South East, said he had been worried about Obi’s fate in the PDP, particularly with the seeming conspiracy to scheme the South East out of the 2023 presidential race.
The former Anambra governor said: “In fact, I was praying that: Oh God, instead of this man (Obi) to be messed up, let him come out and join another party. So with his exit from the PDP, my prayer has been answered.” The elder statesman said the forum was aware that some “fraudulent political moneybags and unpatriotic and shameless election merchants” had flooded the political terrain with lots of money in different currencies to buy over delegates to win the presidential poll at all costs.
He lamented that due to “greed, avarice and unpatriotic zealotry” some party leaders in the two dominant parties – PDP and APC –have resorted to changing the goalpost in the middle of the game in their bid to scheme the South East out of its legitimate right to produce the next President. Ezeife said in spite of the exit of Obi, delegates of the different parties should still vote for the other sons and daughters of the South East still in the race. He said: “We still urge the delegates to shun and shame the greedy and selfish party leaders and vote for presidential aspirants from the South East for the sake of justice, equity, fairness, peace and stability if Nigeria, as to do otherwise may aggravate the current crisis of insecurity and separatist agitations in the country, thus endangering the corporate existence of Nigeria.”
