A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party in Abia State, Hon. Samuel Uduma has said the poor performance of the former senator representing Abia North senatorial district, Mao Ohuabunwa was adversely affecting the chances of the party in Abia North senatorial district.
He stated this in a chat with journalists in Umuahia on Thursday, noting that the PDP was finding it “very hard” to market Ohuabunwa who represented Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency from 1999-2007 and Abia North senatorial district from 2015-2019.
Uduma, who is a grassroots mobilizer urged the party to drop Ohuabunwa as its senatorial candidate for the 2023 senatorial election for the party to make meaningful progress in next year’s general elections.
“As we speak today, most of our members are against the nomination of Ohuabunwa because of the process that brought him. He was rejected by the delegates because of his poor performance at the National Assembly.
“If we must make progress in 2023, Ohuabunwa should be dropped immediately. It is obvious that he has been rejected by majority of our party members including youths and women. PDP is in disarray in Abia North because of the nomination of Ohuabunwa. Most of our leaders are silent because they are afraid to speak up.
“How can any serious party nominate a man who became infamous for doing nothing for 12 years in Abuja? What are we going to campaign with? That we distributed frying pan and had zero project for our people? Ohuabunwa is not the only politician in Abia North, his opponent in the primary is more popular and would have given us a good chance against the Chief Whip of the Senate.
“I am appealing to the Governor and other party leaders to consider dropping Ohuabunwa now for the sake of our political survival. Ohuabunwa is a poor choice because of our experience. He cannot deliver his local government area not to talk of the zone. This is my humble appeal because the PDP is badly divided because of the choice of Ohuabunwa.”
Recall we reported that Hon. Uko Nkole, member representing Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency in the House of Representatives and aspirant for Abia-North senatorial zone, said the primary election conducted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the district was inconclusive.
Nkole alleged that election materials for the primary poll were hijacked by Mao Ohuabunwa, a former senator for the district and his co-aspirant and Godwin Ndom, returning officer for the shadow election.
The lawmaker in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists called on the PDP to do the needful by rescheduling the primary election at the earliest possible date so as to conclude the process.
He said: “I place it on record unequivocally that the Abia North Senatorial Zone Primary election of the PDP, held on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 was inconclusive as the election materials were hijacked by Mao Ohuabunwa and Ndom.
“On getting to the Ohafia LGA Secretariat venue of the primary, I was about to settle down when I was informed that the list being used to accredit delegates at the gate had names different from what was sent to the party national secretariat in Abuja and strangers were being accredited. I moved in to enforce the usage of the actual delegate list.
“After successful accreditation, voting commenced from Umunneochi LGA. After the Umunneochi delegates had cast their votes, Godwin Ndom, who still came with the team from the Party Office, directed that counting of ballots should follow each LGA vote as against the known procedure of counting at the end of balloting while four LGAs of Ohafia, Isiukwuato, Bende and Arochukwu were yet to cast their votes.
“Mao Ohuabunwa, in connivance with Ndom and his miscreants, personally grabbed the ballot box (bucket), available ballot papers, and result sheets and ran out of the election venue after disrupting the entire process.
“This clarification has become necessary in view of the fact that the sponsor and beneficiary of this affront on our electoral processes, planned and premeditated this action knowing full well that he is unpopular and to orchestrate chaos he hopes to benefit from.”
