Abia 2023: Group moves against parties fielding guber candidates outside Abia North
By Chidi Nweke
Less than one month to the governorship poll, group known as Abia Reformation Movement, has vowed to mobilize voters in the state against any political party whose governorship candidate emerged in violation of Abia Charter of Equity that recommended power rotation among the major blocs in the state.
Wawa News Global reports that Abia Reformation Movement, “is a group of patriotic Abia youths who can no longer stay by the sides and watch selfish leaders under various proclivities to continue to destroy our ancient landmarks and heritage in the name of politics of divide and rule and in the process tend to revise and rewrite history.”
ARM argued that disrespecting Abia Charter of Equity amounted to showing no regard for the values that holds the state together.
Addressing a press conference in Umuaha, Leader of the group, Comrade Ibeabuchi Kalu who was flanked by other officials of the youth body, insisted that power should rotate back to Abia North in 2023 in the spirit of equity and justice and in keeping with the Charter of Equity.
He argued that power should return to Abia North where it started from in 1999 having gone round all three senatorial districts in the state.
ARM went down memory lane to justify its insistence that power should return to Abia North having gone round all three senatorial districts in the state.
Alex Otti, Labour Party
“Abia State was a creation of pristine ancient provinces of Aba, Bende, Isiukwuato, and Afikpo divisions. With the creation of Ebonyi state took away the Afikpo province and therefore leaving us with Aba, Bende and Isiukwuato provinces. Whereas Ukwa and their Ngwa cousins later became known as Old Aba province, Bende division and Isiukwuato Umunneochi axis were generally referred to as Old Bende division or province.
“For the purpose of power sharing, Abia State was later subdivided into three Senatorial zones of Abia North, Abia Central and Abia South during the time of the return of democracy in the year, 1999. Gubernatorial power sharing has also been allowed to follow the theology of the Senatorial zones whereupon Abia North was the first to take through Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu, Abia Central took next through Chief Theodore Orji and lastly came Abia South through the incumbent, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu.
“With the expected completion of the tenure of Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, by May 2023, the baton of leadership of the State is expected to and should return to Abia North to begin a new cycle of seamless power shifts across the state. This seamless power shifts across the Senatorial zones is what was contemplated by the Abia Charter of Equity principles for governing the state by our founding fathers.”
The group accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of colluding with some other political parties to “destroy power rotation and ensure that power is retained by Ukwa la Ngwa beyond 2023”, in gross violation of the charter of equity put in place by the founding fathers of the state.
Reading from a prepared text, Kalu said:”The conspiracy between the incumbent government of the PDP and some other political parties, like LP, YPP, et al, in collaboration with some revisionist groups like Ukwa la Ngwa and their cohorts to keep power from rotating back to Abia North is selfish, divisive, clannish, retrogressive, dishonorable, wicked and unacceptable to the generality of Abians of all divides and across political spectrum.
“This, if allowed will enthrone anarchy, chaos, tribal hatred, divisiveness and underdevelop the state. This must be resisted by all patriotic Abians.
“We can no longer watch as revisionist group like Ukwa la Ngwa and their cohorts who enjoy State sponsorship take up the task of re-drawing and re-writing history leading to repartitioning our ancient landmarks to give unearned and unsolicited dominance to a section of the Abia geopolitical entity. This must stop.
“We are therefore calling on all Abians of good conscience to resist the PDP clannish rule that has cast the Abia Charter of Equity under the moving bus by massively voting against the PDP and other political parties that fielded governorship candidates not from Abia North extraction.
” The tendency to foist another Ngwa man to continue after Okezie Victor Ikpeazu is unacceptable. Proactive steps must be taken to return the state back to the template created by our founding fathers who fought for the creation of Abia State.”
The group urged progressive Abians to jettison party affiliations and primordial sentiments and support power shift to Abia North to preserve the sanctity of Abia Charter of Equity.
“We are calling Abians to come together irrespective of political parties and join us to return the government back to Abia North through the Abia Charter of Equity already negotiated for us by our founding fathers.
“Abians of all divide must say no to PDP and the other political parties together with their collaborators with whom they are today trying to destroy the fabrics of peaceful coexistence in the State. Abia State does not belong to the PDP. Enough is Enough.
“We are calling on Abians of good conscience to join hands with ARM to preserve, protect, and defend the pristine principles of Abia Charter of Equity for good governance in our state”.
The group which said it was not working for any particular party or candidate, however, hinted that consultations were already on among governorship candidates of Abia North extraction for a possible consensus candidate.
Steve Oko, Publisher/C.E.O, WaWa News Global. For more information on advert placement and news coverage, contact us on: 08038725600, or via email stevemanofgod2000@yahoo.com; wawanewsglobal@gmail.com Always read WaWa News Global - Your most dependable online news platform for the latest breaking news in Nigeria. 
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