Former Abia Deputy Speaker, joins presidential race

Former Speaker of Abia House of Assembly, Cosmos Ndukwe, has joined the 2023 presidential race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“I started my adult life from the scratch as a tailor and I migrated to be a photographer.

“I became the very first person to introduce internet in the whole of Abia in 1993. And I have grown businesses from cradle,” Ndukwe told newsmen in Abuja after buying his nomination and expression of interest forms.

He said it was the turn of the Southeast to produce Nigeria’s next president.

Ndukwe argued that the Southwest and South-South had taken their turns and the Southeast should take the slot in 2023.

“The only zone that has not ruled this country is the Southeast.

“That is why some of us are throwing our hats into the ring to be able to talk to the PDP family and to delegates that will come for the national congress to consider fairness.

“We have shown strength, we have shown commitment, we have shown respect, we have shown honour and this is the time the PDP should consider the brain that will recover this country,’’ Ndukwe said.

He said he was the best man for the job and that the PDP would have no problem marketing his person.

“I am a man with street credibility.

“If PDP can have someone like me who has feelings and can gauge the pulse of the nation, it will win the presidential election,’’ the aspirant said.

Ndukwe pledged to address the issue of insecurity if elected president.

Similarly, a gubernatorial aspirant for Ebonyi on the platform of the PDP, Obinna Ogba, was at the party’s national secretariat to submit his nomination form.

He said the PDP still had the capacity to win Ebonyi in spite of the defection of the sitting Gov. Dave Umahi to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ogba noted that Umahi left the PDP with only a few of his appointees, saying many of the legislators at the House of Assembly and the House of Representatives were still with PDP.

“The House of Assembly members, eight of them are still with us and the leaders of the party, so we don’t even know that the governor has left the party.

“He left the party, with few of his appointees and when he left, many of his appointees resigned and remained in the PDP.

“`We do not have any problem whether we’re going to win or not; that is not an issue. What is important is that we as PDP should organise ourselves and come together and take our mandate,’’ he said.

Ogba added that he had the capacity to contest against Umahi and the APC to win the 2023 governorship election for the PDP in Ebonyi.

He pledged that if elected he would embark on projects that have direct impacts on the people of the state, especially the youths while also tackling insecurity.

“Insecurity is caused by poverty and hunger. When you give the youth what they want, nobody will have time to start committing crime.

“I can assure you that if I become the governor, a lot of people will be impacted; that is why my motto is: `let’s make Ebonyi happy again,’’ Ogba said.