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The immediate past Minority Leader in the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe has declared that the immediate governor of Abia State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Abia South in the last election, Okezie Ikpeazu, lost his bid to be at the upper chamber of the National Assembly because he has no visible record that would have made the electorates to vote massively for him during the just concluded poll.
Abaribe who contested the election under the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) against the former governor stated that the poor performance of Ikpeazu as governor of Abia State gave him (Abaribe) an edge over and above Ikpeazu.
The Eastern Updates reports that the senator resoundingly defeated Ikpeazu in the 25th of February, 2023 poll and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He will represent the people for a fifth time in the upper legislative chamber.
He asserted that his (Abaribe’s) record as senator from the zone was glaring and that when it was matched with that of Ikpeazu, the electorates have no alternative than to choose hime as a better candidate.
‘Ikpeazu has no record and that’s why he failed the election. His record was put at the table with mine and it didn’t match mine at all. Mine is to make laws while his is to execute projects for Abia people. It was a case of his record versus mine; the two were clear and the people made a better choice.
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When asked to compare the 1993 election with 2023 poll 30 years after, the senator contended that comparing the two is like comparing apples with oranges. In 1993 election which MKO Abiola was presumed to have won, was conducted manually while the 2023 election was technologically based.
‘In the just concluded poll, we knew what was happening through the press of the hand phone and everything comes out. 1993 was basically option A4’, he added, pointing out today electronic system of voting, despite its manipulations, has taken over.
He believed that the fourth republic has deteriorated because of the way political leaders conducted the business of governance. According to him, at the commencement of the fourth republic, the candidates for the legislature were a bit independent because they ran their elections themselves unlike the present time when many candidates are handpicked by godfathers.
‘This in actual fact negates the principles of democracy because the man being elected does not owe his loyalty to the people, but to the man or woman who handpicked and sponsors him to win the election’, he opined.
