The power struggle in Enugu State ahead of the 2011 general elections took a new dimension on the 13th October 2010 as one of the three factions of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) in the state, the Ebeano Political Group, led by former Governor, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani officially declared its decision to abandon the ruling party and join the People for Democratic Change (PDC).
However, the leader of the group, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani told newsmen that he was still consulting with his people on what best to do following the development, insisting that he was still a PDP Senator.
Addressing a well attended rally at Agbani, home of Senator Nnamani, the spokesman of the party, Mr. Igbonekwu Ogazimora noted that the Ebeano group built the PDP in the state, as a people oriented party, “but unfortunately he made a mistake and elected the wrong person. That mistake is what we are trying to correct.”
He recalled that the problem with the PDP started at the last state congress of the party; “we did ours at McDavos and it was supervised by people from the party and supervised by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Governor and his men were at the Presidential Hotel partying; at the end we won but because of the special relationship with Ogbulafor, they started working with the governor until INEC gave its official position.”
Ogazimora noted that his group had been floating in the state PDP; “the government, the people do not want us, the Nwodo people do not want us and since as a group we need to continue expressing ourselves politically, we decided to enter this party called PDC. “It’s a very small party, it’s a very local party; we pose no threat to anybody, we pose no threat to PDP nationally, we don’t even pose a threat to PDP in the state, we are just a little party; its just a way to express ourselves politically.”