The National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Col. Austin Akobundu (retd.), has said that the rumoured defection of Ekweremadu to the APC was the handiwork of mischief makers who he said were worried about the rising profile of the party.
The NOS said Ekweremadu “is PDP, body and soul and he is not leaving the party to anywhere.”
Meanwhile, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr Peter Obi, on Wednesday, in Abuja, met with delegations from the European Union and World Economic Forum to discuss the need to conduct free and fair elections in 2019 and how to grow the nation’s economy through collaboration.
Obi, who represented the presidential candidate of the party and former Vice-President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, at the two separate meetings, told the EU delegation that efforts should be made to stop the APC from intimidating candidates of opposition political parties who, he said, now lived in fear.
He said the EU should insist on a level-playing field for all candidates and parties during elections in Nigeria because “there is a need to get the country back to its feet and make it better for our children.’’
He said that campaigns should be based on issues so that the electorate and the international community could come to grasp with the problems of the country as well as the solutions being proffered by each of the political parties and their candidates.
The former Anambra Governor said that judging from what happened during the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States, “INEC needs to show that it remains an unbiased umpire in future elections in the country.”
In his comments, the head of the EU delegation, Ketil Karlsen, said the election observer group had been consulting stakeholders in Nigeria to ascertain whether or not it would be necessary for the union to send a new EU election observer mission.
He said the EU mission had been operating in Nigeria since 1999 and that the union had invested over 100 million Euros in Nigeria’s election process since then.
Speaking at the meeting with officials of WEF, Obi emphasised the need for a closer working relationship with African countries, especially Nigeria, because most governments on the continent did not want to work with the forum for fear of being criticised.
He said, “A lot of work needs to be done in Africa because things are tough. Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates of the PDP have a clear picture of what the economic priorities are and what the international community feels about the country.
“Nigeria needs to do something immediately for its economy to be put back on track and something has to done immediately.”
The leader of the WEF delegation, Nontle Kabanyane, said that the forum was ready to strengthen relationships and to implement more activities in Nigeria through a collaboration that would lead to national transformation.