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Enugu 2023: Enugu West Leaders provide minutes of meeting to back zoning

Chetanne Chinelo, Enugu

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Sequel to the declaration of a 3 time former Deputy President of the Senate and current Senator representing Enugu West Senatorial Zone, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu, to run for Governor of Enugu State in a press conference/media consultation held on March 11, 2022 in Enugu, a group of Enugu West Senatorial district political leaders, Ife Emelumma, led by a former Senator of Enugu West Senatorial Zone, Distinguished Senator Ben-Collins Ndu, have faulted the position of Senator Ike Ekweremadu that there was no governorship zoning arrangement in the state, recalling that indeed Ekweremadu signed a document where the Enugu political leaders consented to the rotation of governorship of the state in 2013.

The group in a press conference in Enugu, on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, distributed minutes of the state Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, caucus meeting held at the Governor’s lodge Enugu on July 7, 2013, where Senator Ekweremadu, purportedly signed as number four in the attendance list.

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Ndu, while addressing newsmen said he wondered why Ekweremadu who was physically present in the meeting would say that “there was no Zoning in Enugu state.”

Ndu however agreed that there was no written zoning and rotation of governorship position in the state, but that the Enugu West stakeholders and Leaders of Thought at Ife Emelumma Enugu West mega rally in August last year agreed that the governor of Enugu state in 2023 election will come from Enugu East Senatorial district, while the turn of Enugu West Senatorial district will be in 2031.

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According to Ndu: “Ekweremadu was number four in the attendance list and he signed. Ekweremadu is heating up the process that his party had concluded. He has just turned his back on the party to talk about the constitution and freedom.

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“What he is doing is like medicine after death, it’s an afterthought and it’s too late for him….. but we know that at the end of the day he will come back to his senses because he is one of us.

“What he is saying is not going to work because it is the turn of Enugu East Senatorial district. Ike (Ekweremadu) is a team player and at the end of the day he will see a reason to step down,” Ndu said.

As the guber race heats up, the issue of whether a zoning arrangement exists in the state PDP or not, has continued to dominate the space, especially with the belief that Ekweremadu’s ambition may dislodge the political equation and that it is the turn of Enugu East Senatorial Zone to produce the next governor of the state in 2023