The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Dr. Martin Chukwunweike , says the party is actually begging the immediate past gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party and her former member, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, to come back.
Speaking during the Freedom Square Live radio programme held on Saturday at Solid 100.9 FM Enugu, Dr. Chukwunweike stated that after the inauguration of the party’s grassroots leadership, it was necessary to get back her members who left due to anger or irreconcilable differences at that time.
He stated that Governor Peter Ndubisi Mbah had instructed that such moves start with an open mind, also talking to those who would want to speak and see him, adding that more leaders would be met as time goes on.
According to him, “We are actually begging Chijioke Edeoga to come back.”
“We have the authorisation of the governor to go, see, and talk to anybody we feel should come back. He told us that such a person can also see him and have an interaction with him. We approached Edeoga, and he was very happy. He is a perfect gentleman who respects His Excellency to the core. We actually need Edeoga’s support and that of those he controls. Prior to the visit, we had some direct interactions, one-on-one, physically. Then we had some phone calls, phone conversations, and text messages that culminated in that visit, which the governor is aware of because, at every stage session, the governor knew about it. So that visit was to come and make it official that we were asking him to return to the party.”
“Apparently, he never had an issue with our governor. If anything happened, it was with somebody else, but with this governor, whom he has a lot of respect for, there’s nothing wrong between the two of them. We now came and made our request open. Someone who said PDP is begging him to come back is correct. We are actually begging him to come back. We approached him; he didn’t approach us. But the way he received us showed me somebody who is a gentleman to the core, who’s also open to reasoning and dialogue. When we achieve it, it will be a win-win situation because, with what happened before, we don’t want to take anybody for granted. We want to take everything seriously and make sure that, come 2027, we will try to have a seamless transition to the second term of our governor.”
“The discussion with him has been cordial, and after the discussion with him, he now said he actually didn’t come there just like that. He has a lot of followers because we’re not just looking for Edeoga’s vote; we’re looking for those he controls so that when he comes, those who come with him will make the whole thing easier for us. We are still consulting others, and we’re going to consult a lot more before now.”
“We are going to approach everybody possible because we don’t want to see a repetition of what happened in 2023, as we don’t want to take anybody for granted.”