Pains in Abia will multiply if APC loses in 2023 – Emenike

*Unveils Female running mate from Ukwa

From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia

The Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, has sued for peace and unity in the party, sounding an alarm that the pains in the state would multiply if the party loses the governorship seat in 2023.

Chief Emenike gave the warning at a stakeholders meeting in Bende Local Government Area on Sunday when he unveiled his female running mate, Rev. Barr (Mrs.) Gloria Nanya Akara, from Ukwa East LGA.

Addressing the meeting hosted by a former House of Assembly aspirant, Dr. Nwkeocha Chidiebere in his country home in Okoko Item, Emenike assured that all the misunderstandings in the party would soon be a thing of the past and expressed hope that the party would march into the 2023 general elections as a united force.

He charged all party executive members, from the Ward to the state levels, to embark on reconciliation so that every party member would be brought on board, assuring “that the little hills (misunderstandings/grievances) would be flattened.”

“We are going to evolve a programme of carrying everybody along, nobody will be left out. We didn’t win primaries to humiliate anybody, we didn’t win primaries to insult anybody. People should understand it: the primaries are over in all parties, the congresses are over. I f we don’t win this governorship, God forbid, I can assure you that the punishment, the pains in Abia will multiply,” Emenike said, adding “So, it is our duty to win it.”

Unveiling his running mate, Barr. Mrs. Gloria Nanya Akara, Emenike said he went for equity aimed at making an Ukwa indigene and a woman to become a Deputy Governor which has never happened since the creation of Abia.

“We don’t just talk about gender equality, we practice it. I am presenting the best woman you can find for this position anywhere in the country, Barrister, Rev. Mrs Gloria Akara,” the Abia APC governorship hopeful told the jubilant crowd, describing his running mate as “a faithful woman, a true mother, a loving wife, an educated citizen and a lady who has ticked all the boxes of a decent human being.”

Accepting to pair with Chief Emenike to slug it out with other parties in the 2023 governorship contest in Abia, Mrs. Akara described her choice as “a rare offer and opportunity” and pledged to work “wholeheartedly” with Chief Emenike to realise his rescue mission agenda which she called “noble and most laudable cause.”

“I deeply appreciate High Chief Ikechi Emenike, for his choice of my humble self as his Deputy Governorship Candidate, to carry out his outlined noble and lofty Mandate,” she said, adding that it was a sign that the APC standard bearer embraced inclusiveness of women.

She said she was happy that Emenike has extended his hand of fellowship to “Ukwa to produce a Deputy Governor for the first time ever in Abia,” adding “it is a gesture that those of us from Ukwa cannot thank him enough for.”

Mrs Akara said the emergence of Emenike as the Governorship Candidate of APC to salvage Abia was timely. “I believe the emergence of High Chief Ikechi Emenike, a well renowned Economist and a tested and trusted dynamic leader with the mandate to rescue Abia is an answer to prayers.

“The people of Abia have prayed and cried to God variously to intervene in the affairs of the state and God has sent us a man in the person of Chief Emenike to rescue this state.

“Chief Emeinke’s emergence at this time and in this season is well timed for Abia liberation, transformation, credible and tangible change on several fronts, change that we will be able to see. This is my belief and I know that as things unfold, we are going to see that. And that change will be on several fronts: from the basic to the truly knotty issues of governance: from education, infrastructure, health and tourism to the economy and security,” said the APC Deputy Governorship Candidate who is a lawyer of over 40 years standing and a mother of five, four of whom are also lawyers.

She attributed Abia’s stunted development to denial of what was due the state. “Being strategically located and blessed by God as an oil producing state in Nigeria and also a well-known industrial hub in Africa, Abia deserves much more than it has merely gotten in the course of her existence,” Akara who is the wife of the General Overseer of God’s Heritage Church and President-General of Ndoki People in Abia, Cross River and Rivers States, Dr Felix Akara.

Addressing the meeting, the Abia State Chairman of APC, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, assured Chief Emenike that Bende was strongly behind him.

Also, the APC party Chairman in Bend LGA, Elder Dr.Ejiofor Okeudo, told the Abia APC leader that he mobilized people to participate massively during the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and that they were waiting for the proper time to deliver him at the polls.

Bende South APC House of Assembly Candidate, Owa Chinedu Kingsley, and the host of the meeting, Dr Nwokeocha Chidiebere, said they were working very hard to ensure Emenike emerges victorious in next year’s governorship contest.

Chidiebere said that Abia needs a strong-willed person in the mould of Emenike to rescue her, adding that Chief Emenike was the most popular governorship candidate in Abia today.