A governorship aspirant in Abia, Greg Ibe, has formally announced his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), barely three weeks after declaring his aspiration, describing the party as dubious.

Mr Ibe, a founding member, declared to run for the governor on the platform of PDP on March 9.

He said his desire to run on the party’s ticket was predicated on an alleged agreement by the party elders that the slot would be zoned to his area, Abia North Senatorial District.

However, the party later zoned the slot to Abia Central and North Senatorial districts for the 2023 governorship election.

Addressing journalists in his Achara Uturu country home on Sunday, Mr Ibe said he had joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to pursue his gubernatorial ambition.

Mr Ibe decided to resign his PDP membership to protest against the party’s “controversial” zoning formula.

He described the decision to dump the party as a painful one, considering his strategic role in funding and nurturing it to become a dominant party in Abia since the return of democratic governance.

He added that he expected the party to reward him with the governorship ticket for his huge investment through financial assistance and donation of equipment to support the health and educational programmes of PDP-led administrations in Abia.

He, however, noted that his resolve to look elsewhere to realise his ambition became inevitable because he realised that the party did not want him.

Mr Ibe, who was in the governorship race in 2015, said the party’s elders prevailed on him to drop his ambition so that power would move to Abia South Senatorial District for fairness and equity to reign.

He disclosed that it was also agreed that power would return to Abia North in 2023, in line with the dictates of the Abia Charter of Equity and rotational arrangement.

He said that subsequent meetings of the party leaders reinforced the agreement during the campaign for the re-election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in 2019.

“The aftermath of these meetings led me and my people in Abia North to mobilise men and materials to ensure Ikpeazu’s re-election against all odds,” Mr Ibe said.

He expressed dismay that whereas other political positions in the party’s working committee in Abia were rotated among the senatorial districts ahead of the 2023 general elections, the governorship was shrouded in controversy.

The governorship hopeful alleged that the current zoning arrangement was designed to allow for the emergence of an “anointed candidate” and deny Abia North the right to produce the next governor.

Mr Ibe expressed confidence Abia’s electorate would continue to support him, even in APGA, considering his philanthropic and humanitarian programmes that had touched the people’s lives in Abia.

He appealed to “lovers of equity, fairness and justice and all those who desire the progress of Abia” to join him in APGA.

(NAN)