2023: Abaribe In Tit-For-Tat With Ikpeazu, Moves To Block Abia Gov’s Senatorial Bid 

The Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has moved to retaliate against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu after the outgoing governor blocked his bid to succeed him in 2023.

Abaribe will be squaring off with Ikpeazu in the 2023 general election to retain his seat at the Senate. He confirmed this to Channels TV on Friday. 

THE WHISTLER reported that the Senator had sought the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but withdrew from the race after the Governor Ikpeazu-led Abia PDP zoned the position to the Abia Central and Abia North Senatorial Districts in the state. 

Abaribe had said the zoning was “merely formulated to exclude me from the contest,” adding that “the cabal” in Abia wanted to subject citizens of the state to “further years of imposition”. 

Meanwhile, at the just concluded senatorial primary election of the PDP in Abia, Governor Ikpeazu emerged as the party’s candidate to contest the Abia South seat in the Senate. 

In an apparent move to stop Ikpeazu’s bid, Abaribe on Friday announced that he had defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and would be seeking reelection to office on the party’s platform. 

In his resignation letter addressed to the PDP Chairman in his ward in Obingwa Local Government Area, Abaribe hinged his decision on “the shameful display of illegality, impunity, and undemocratic decision of the party”.