An All Progressives Congress (APC) Abia South senatorial district aspirant, Prince Paul Ikonne, has expressed confidence in ending the return of Enyinnaya Abaribe to the upper legislative chambers after next year’s general elections.

The APC chieftain, who will be contesting against Abaribe, claimed that members of the senatorial district have resolved that Abaribe will not be re-elected in 2027, having spent almost 20 years in the Senate with no developmental projects in the district to show for the long duration.

Ikonne also dismissed the four-year single-term promise made by the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, insisting that when the time is ripe for the South East to produce a president, it will be for eight years like other regions.

Speaking during a media interactive parley on Thursday in Abuja, Prince Ikonne revealed that all the South East governors, including Alex Otti of Abia State, and all major political stakeholders in Igboland are currently behind the re-election of President Tinubu in 2027.

The immediate-past executive secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) had earlier in the week launched a grassroots group in Abia State, Asiwaju Tsunami in 2027, to mobilise support and give President Tinubu massive votes.

Appraising his chances against Abaribe, he said, “Abaribe abandoning Peter Obi is a clear indication that what happened in the 2023 general election will not happen again in the South East. It goes to show that Peter Obi will no longer have that kind of wave that came in 2023. The Labour Party (LP) is not really on the ground in Abia state.

“So, LP has gone through one form of crisis or the other. It is still trying to come out of that crisis, and a party struggling to solve an internal crisis cannot be on ground. The local government elections in Abia was conducted using ZLP, not LP. So till today, the elected officials in Abia are all in ZLP, they have not decamped to the best of my knowledge.

“Senator Abaribe is already coming back home. This is 20 years in the senate and there is nothing to show for it. There is nowhere you will go and you will see any constituency project in the entire Abia South.

“It is interesting to note that Abia South is the engine hub of Abia state and by extension South-east because Aba is the commercial nerve center for the South-east. Abia South is also the oil producing zone for Abia state. Yet there is nothing to show for it. So he is already coming back home. People are preparing to welcome him back home and some group of people are pushing for him to be given a traditional title to take over one community in his local government.

“I will be very glad, so excited to have him contest against me from LP. Don’t forget that he has lost a lot of credibility jumping from APGA controversially to ADC or something like that, then from ADC now to Labour Party. So that tells you that he is on his way out,” he said.

Frowning at Obi’s one-tenure promise, Ikonne said: “Why would he (Peter Obi) promise to be President for four years? So he is trying to deprive the Southeasterners when other zones are doing eight years. No South East man will vote for such a thing. No, not at all.

“We are not looking for a president that will just be there for four years. We want to produce, when the time comes, the Igbo president that will be there for eight years,” he said.

He further revealed that Imo State governor Hope Uzodimma has set up a team to sensitise Igbos across the country, shop to shop, market to market, to mobilise support for President Tinubu’s re-election, adding that the massive votes Tinubu will get in 2027 will come from all the places where Igbos reside and not only in the Eastern region.

“The Igbos will not make that mistake and we will not be deceived to say let people come just for four years, to do what exactly? It may take him (Obi) two years to appoint his Ministers. Before they will finish taking him round the Villa, finish meeting with the Permanent Secretaries and all that, four years will be over.”

On the assurance that South East governors are with President Tinubu, Ikonne said: “One clear indication is that when the governor who came on board to govern through LP is now supporting the President, that means he doesn’t have any opposition in Abia state. That is one clear assurance.”

“Again, I guess I have seen what is happening in terms of development within the South East and the kind of resources that the President has left in the hands of the governors. People now know that indeed, that with the president’s mindset of allowing the funds to go straight to the governors, he means well for Nigerians,” he said. (The Sun)