A former governorship aspirant in Enugu State, Prof Barth Nnaji revealed in a statement on Sunday that he will not withdraw his support for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate, Peter Mbah, in the 2023 general elections.
Naija News recalls that the former Minister of Power, months ago, battled alongside others including Mbah for the PDP guber ticket, but lost at the party’s primary election.
Nnaji said after the primaries, he got offered free governorship tickets from both Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC) but rejected the two parties.
Explaining why, Nnaji said though he lost PDP’s ticket to Mbah, he could not betray the PDP and the candidate after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before the primaries alongside other guber aspirants, to support whosoever emerged as the winner of the ticket at primary level.
Naija News reports that Nnaji disclosed this in his hometown of Umuode, Nkanu East local government area when Mbah paid him a courtesy visit over the weekend.
The former minister said nothing has changed after the primaries, stressing that he remained a staunch supporter of the PDP gubernatorial flagbearer.
According to Nnaji, when the other political parties approached him with their offers, he emphatically told them he would not be contesting against Mbah whom he had earlier assured of his support.
Citing the importance of leadership and integrity, Nnaji said he would never join those working the opposite direction from their collective agreement, saying the letters of the MoU prepared by the Nkanu East Leaders Consultative Forum, a body which he led ahead of the primaries, and signed by the gubernatorial aspirants of the PDP in the state, was binding on them and should serve as their conscience.
According to him, “you don’t abruptly abandon your direction for another direction”.
The former minister said the clarification was important to dispute all sorts of sayings on social media platforms.
While congratulating the Enugu State governorship hopeful, Nnaji said he would continue to work with him and further charged his followers and supporters to join the PDP moving train for the successful prosecution and successful outcome of the election.
On his part earlier, Mbah expressed his profound gratitude to the former minister for the reception and for supporting his candidacy in the forthcoming election.
The PDP flagbearer said history would not forget the invaluable role Nnaji played in ensuring that the ticket came down to Nkanu East.
This article was originally published on Naija News
