Zoning: Nnamani, Ekweremadu clash over 2023 Enugu governorship ticket
Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State are at loggerheads over the zoning of the state’s 2023 governorship ticket.
The zoning debate has pitted the senator representing Enugu East, Chimaroke Nnamani, against a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who represents Enugu West in the Senate.
Nnamani is said to have rallied key PDP leaders in the state to back the zoning of the ticket to Enugu East, a move Ekweremadu described as a “gang up” against Enugu West.
A former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo; former Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime; a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; and a former PDP national chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo are reportedly said to be backing Senator Nnamani.
The pro-East zoning leaders are also said to have secured the buy-in of the incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on the project.
However, the Enugu Rescue Group (ERG), a political interest group loyal to Ekweremadu, has countered that the proponents of the zoning arrangement were out to frustrate the quest by the Enugu people for quality leadership in 2023.
Ekweremadu is said to be nursing a governorship ambition in 2023.
The Nnamani group has insisted that the decision to zone the 2023 governorship ticket to Enugu East was based on a subsisting rotational zoning arrangement put in place since 1999.
Nnamani, who was governor from 1999 to 2007, is from Enugu East; Sullivan Chime who succeeded him from 2007 to 2015 is from Enugu West; while Ugwuanyi who got elected in 2015 and who will be completing his two terms of eight years in 2023 is from Enugu North.
The position of the Nnamani group is that since the three senatorial districts have produced the governor in turn, the ticket ought to return to Enugu East in 2023 for a fresh rotation start.
