By CHARLES IWUOHA

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, advised Ebonyi State Governor, Engr. David Umahi, to return the secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abakaliki to the party since he has defected to the All Progressives Congress(APC).

The Party office has been under lock since Umahi joined the APC, a development which forced the PDP to relocate to a hotel as its temporary office.

Atiku gave the advice during his consultation for his presidential ambition with PDP stakeholders in Ebonyi State.

Represented by the Chairman of the Technical Committee for the Actualization of Atiku Abubakar Presidential Election, Raymond Dokpesi, the former President also urged Ebonyi Governor to immediately release the Publicity Secretary of the party, Nwoba Chika Nwoba, who has been remanded in police custody.

“I remember vividly when I came here on two, three occasions, the first one was when I was contesting for chairman of the party, the Engineer, this Governor met me at Abuja to plead with me to step down for the chairmanship race for the overall interest of the party and in the overall interested of the federal government.”

“I call on him to at this point in time to return the secretariat to the PDP. Let me also call on him to immediately release the PDP Spokesman whom he has taken to court with trumped up charges. We are all supposed to be democratic.

“People have a right to different opinions. I want to call on all members of the Peoples Democratic Party in this place to remain resilient, I believe very shortly, you will be hearing some good news.”

“I’m here on behalf of Atiku Abubakar to consult with you to express deep appreciation to you on the support you gave to me in Port Harcourt 2018 and thank you for giving me about 70 per cent of the total vote cast in 2019 general elections.

“But like I said, the 2019 election which we contested, the APC which is the ruling party diverted the outcome to themselves. And as law-abiding citizens, since the Supreme Court pronounced on it, we had to start preparing for the next elections which is scheduled for February next year.

“We pray and hope that the government will sign into law the new electoral act, that will be able to have some transparent election.”

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