Chinedum Orji, the outgoing Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, has identified ‘betrayal’ by pretendious political stakeholders from the state led to his lost in the just-concluded national assembly election held across the state in February 25th 2023.
He spoke in an interview with journalists at his Umuahia Ibeku residence in the state capital during the weekend.
Recall Orji who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Ikwuano/umuahia federal constituency seat in the house of representatives at the concluded 2023 election, was defeated by Mr Obi Aguocha, the flagbearer of the Labour Party (LP) at the conclusion of the execrise by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Speaking earlier, Orji decried cheap propaganda, greed and envy of the highest proportions being displayed nowadays by major Abia political leaders, critical stakeholders and teeming political followers, accusing the Outgone Governor of the State, Okezie Ikpeazu of treachery despite all his committment and unwavering support in ensuring his emergence for twice as governor.
Words: It’s a season of do me, I do you.When you are hobnobbing with my enemies in the night. When you sponsored my opponent in the night, and I decided to be a statesman, and you had an issue with that.
“But you were sponsoring my opponents, and you want me to continue fighting your enemies for you. So that when I fight, you win. And you go by 2 am, you invite him to your place and reconcile with him. He will then tell him how bad and cankerous the boy is. He is always fighting. I didn’t send him. I didn’t do this.
“All those “gamji”(scam) don pass. All those gamji period don pass. If you want to fight, you fight. You come out and do the fighting by yourself. So, if you fight me directly, i will fight you also directly. Am a man and I’m not afraid of them.”
He reiterated he had accepted outcome of the conducted house of representatives election held for the ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency seat in a good faith, stating that it’s now time to encourage newly elected political officers to work towards bringing dividends of democracy to the people irrespective of party leanings.
According to him, “as far as am concerned, i am not ready to quit politics today or tomorrow. I will still remain here whether anybody like it or not. You want to contest election in this our territories, be it umuahia north, Abia central senatorial zone and Abia state at large, even if my worst enemy advises you not to consult me, you do that at your privacy, and when election results comes out, it is not only me that can be betrayed. It is not only me.
“I lost an election and people you dine in the night, and by 7am in the morning they will start to think another thing against you. It is a very dangerous tactics. There is no way we can abandon them. We can’t abandon them. There is no way we can abandon them. Only this time around, we want to be extremely careful to identify the genuine ones. We have learnt alot.
“This time, we want to identify those who love you genuinely, and not those who claimed they love you because of what they get from you. And once they did not get that thing, you are no more usefuI. I’ve many of them around me.”