Forum tackles Abia ex-PDP
chairman
By Chidi Obineche
Monday, August 2, 2004
Ndi Abia Consultative Forum, a young socio-political group,
has asked the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
PDP, Chief Tony Ukasanya, to tread softly on his comments
on the move to impeach the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr.
Chima Nwafor, by the State House of Assembly.
The President-General of the group, Dr. Emmanuel Aguzie Ndukwe,
told Daily Sun in Lagos that Ukasanya has fallen short of
expectations as a leader and former chairman of the party.
"As a well respected elder in Abia state, Chief Tony
Ukasanya is not expected to throw stones in the market place
where he is expected to maintain peace and orderliness. Whatever
happened, he is supposed to give good and fatherly advice
to the political development of the state," he said.
Expressing deep resentment on his comments further, Ndukwe
accused Ukasanya of sulking endlessly over "the loss
of his exalted position in the party".
He also says that the ex-party boss has an exaggerated vision
of his political profile in the state.
"For a man who claimed to have single handedly produced
90% of the members in Abia State House of Assembly, Ndi Abia
Consultative forum feels that he ought to bring his influence
to bear positively over the latest political development in
Abia State than rather stoking the fire of division.
"As a peace loving Forum, we are much more concerned
about the degree of danger such unguided statement, most especially
coming from a supposed leader, could cause in a peace-loving
state such as Abia.
"We wonder why Chief Ukasanya has resolved to pick up
his gauntlet and fire his unrelenting destructive belligerence
not only against Governor Orji Kalu as an individual, but
on the entire peace-loving people of Abia State, after losing
out as the state chairman of the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP). This is exemplified by his recent unguided utterances
as he sought to protect the embattled deputy governor pre-judiciously
and his recent political antecedents with the Abuja group
during the 2003 Gubernatorial Election.
However, we would not want to go into the activities of the
above-mentioned group and the havoc they tried to create in
the ‘poor’ state at that time. We consider all
that to be history now. We thank God that at the end, good
reasons prevailed and elections in Abia State were seen to
have been held in peaceful circumstances all over the state.
But one would have thought that Chief Ukasanya and his cohorts
should have learnt their lessons from the events of 2001 and
2002 and turned a new leaf by now with a great resolve to
do whatever is in their power to uplift Abia State and her
people.
"We thank God that Abia is not so volatile as some of
the other states in the Nigeria federation. However, it is
worthy to note the mindset of people like Chief Tony Ukasanya
who would want to make peace through subversion when he tried
to cause disaffection between the members of Abia State House
of Assembly and the PDP National Working Committee by claiming
that information at his disposal indicated that members of
Abia state Legislature planned to defy the pleas of the National
Working Committee (NWC) and later turn round to apologize
to the party."
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