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Damilola Aina, Abuja

Daily Courier – Former deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has withdrawn from the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Charles Asogwa, the director-general of Ikeoha Campaign Organisation (ICO) disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

ICO is the campaign organisation of Mr Ekweremadu .

“We wish to inform our supporters and Nigeria that the former deputy president of the senate and foremost governorship aspirant in Enugu State, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, will not be participating in the PDP governorship primary election scheduled for this Wednesday, May 25, 2022,” Mr Asogwa said.

Although no reason was given for the withdrawal of the lawmaker, it is not unconnected with the existing cold war with Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and the leadership of the state chapter of the PDP over battle for the party’s governorship ticket in the state.

In a related development,  the Senate Minority leader and a governorship aspirant in Abia State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has formally withdrawn from the party’s primary election scheduled for Wednesday, May 25.

Abaribe who announced his withdrawal from the race in a statement, said he would not want to taint his hard earned reputation on a “charade” characterized by the use of an “imaginary delegates list and lack of transparency.”

Abaribe also said contrary to what the public had been made to believe, there was no three-man delegate election anywhere in the state by the party, alleging that the list being bandied about was cooked up by those who want to impose their candidate on the party.

In a strongly-worded statement titled “Notice of Non-Participation in the Abia PDP Gubernatorial Primaries” he personally signed, the Senate Minority leader said his next political move would soon be made public.

“The last couple of weeks has been tortuous as we battled hard to navigate our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) away from a self destructive path.

“To make matters worse, the use of only an imaginary 3-man Adhoc delegates to the exclusion of the party’s statutory delegates in the primary elections to elect our candidates even when INEC the nation’s electoral umpire, has unequivocally stated that no congress held in Abia State for that purpose, has no doubt put the party and her candidates in a quagmire.

Accordingly, I, Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe will not be part of this charade.

“I am therefore withdrawing from the exercise, which means that I will not be part of the PDP governorship primary election that holds in Abia State on Wednesday 25th of May, 2022, as doing so would have amounted to endorsement of an illegality that is already being challenged in the courts.

Mr Ekweremadu and Senator Abaribe’s withdrawal came just a few hours to the Wednesday’s governorship primaries of the party.