Ugochukwu Declares Support for Orji
From Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia, 08.23.2010
Abia

Abia Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governorship candidate in the April 2007 election, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, has said he will not contest the 2011 election.

Ugochukwu declared a ceasefire in his struggle with Abia State Governor Theodore Orji and offered his total support to the governor in the task of developing the state as well as Orji’s quest for a second term in office.

The face-off between Ugochukwu and Orji came to an end weekend when Ugochukwu held a meeting with his teeming supporters at his country home in Umule Ohuhu Umuahia to brief them on the unfolding political development in the state.
He also used the occasion to brief them of the outcome of the “negotiated end” of the battle at the behest of the presidency, following the move to bring ‘Orji into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“You have gone through a long struggle and it has been painful. We have to accept the will of God that I will not be governor,” he told his supporters, many of whom shed tears.
He insisted that the struggle with Orji was not a personal thing but based on “ideas for developing Abia” hence as “T.A Orji has brought his people into PDP, I believe that his programmes would now be derived from the PDP manifesto”.

The feud between the two politicians commenced immediately after the 2007 gubernatorial elections when Orji, the then candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the chagrin of Ugochukwu, who was the flag bearer of the PDP.

Ugochukwu had contested the verdict contending that his mandate was “stolen”. He won at the election petitions tribunal but in February 2009, his victory was overturned at the Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt and his last effort to get the Appeal Court in Owerri to reverse the decision came to nought.

But he told his supporters that their efforts were not in vain because “the most important thing is that the governor has jettisoned Orji Uzor Kalu and his mother (Eunice), the image of evil”.
“We will encourage him (Governor Orji); we will work with him sincerely and even those things we wanted to do for Abia we will help him to do that,” he said.

He however stated that Orji must strive hard to make a difference between now and December so that the people of Abia would appreciate that his liberation from Kalu and his mother was for real.
The former NDDC boss explained to his teeming supporters that the situation they found themselves was akin to what happened in 2002 when Abia PDP leaders had resolved to stop Kalu’s second term bid but after the presidency reached a compromise with the PDP governors, the party structure in the state was handed over to Kalu and everybody had to fall in line prompting many to leave the party in anger.

But he advised his supporters against leaving the party because of what had happened, saying “it is better for us to remain there and help the governor.”
He denied the rumour making the rounds that he had collected N3 billion to support Orji, saying “nobody has given me a penny to do what we have done to get a negotiated end instead of unconditional surrender.”

According to him, he came into the picture at the tail end of the process of negotiation, which Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Senator Ike Nwachukwu “claimed to have initiated”.

Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, who was the only PDP federal lawmaker at the event, absolved herself and other National Assembly members from blame that they abandoned the struggle and sold out to Orji.
“I’ve never been a traitor; I’ve never been a saboteur. I’m faithful and loyal to our party,” she pleaded.
She explained that “the order (to abandon the struggle and support Orji) came from above and there was nothing we could do about it”.