As 2023 draws near with many politicians declaring their intentions to join the governorship race, Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has reiterated his stand that he will not get distracted as he is not thinking about the politics of 2023 at the moment.
The Governor, who was reacting to certain reports in both the traditional and social media on the declaration of interest of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, noted that some of the reports are ‘factually incorrect while some others carry certain misleading insinuations and needless innuendos.’
Ikpeazu, in a release on Monday titled, ‘2023 – IKPEAZU WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED’ and signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, stated that he will rather concern himself more to the completion of ongoing projects especially in Aba for which contractors have been mobilized as doing otherwise will amount to technical abridgement of his own tenure and cause him distraction.
While listing the roads to include, Faulks Road, Port Harcourt Road, Ngwa Road, Uratta, Obohia, Ohanku, Onuma, Eziukwu-Cemetery Road, Aba Owerri Road, ABSUTH – Udeagbala Road and the Osisioma Interchange, amongst others, the Governor maintained that, “it will be inexpedient for him to associate himself with the aspirations of any person at this time, a move that could send wrong signals to the rest of the State and introduce some level of confusion in the politics of our dear state.”
Narrating the event of what led to Sen. Abaribe’s indication of interest to contest for the governorship of the state, the governor, who said that a proper clarification has not only become politically expedient but inevitable, explained:
“On 24th December 2021, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu received Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in his Country Home at Umuobiakwa, Obingwa LGA on a scheduled Christmas visit. This visit, which has become an annual ritual by the Senator, is for all intents and purposes, a display of brotherhood and love. Senator Abaribe is not only an elder brother to the Governor but a highly respected Nigerian political leader.
“It was in the course of the visit that the Senator informed the Governor of his intention to “throw his hat into the ring” when the contest for the 2023 Gubernatorial Elections in the State starts. The Senator was accompanied by some political leaders from Obingwa LGA on the visit.”
He said he is a strong believer of the fact that power comes from God and that the issues around power are too important and critical that God cannot leave it entirely in the hands of men, insisting that such was the philosophy that defined his own emergence as Governor in 2015.
“Finally, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is a democrat who understands and respects the rights of every citizen to his political aspirations. He also firmly believes that when the time is right, the usual interplay of political forces on the one hand and a divine agenda on the other will put all issues around who succeeds him to rest” he concluded.