A former presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the 2019 elections, Chief Charles Udoka Udeogaranya, has backed the presidential ambition of Labour Party (LP) flagbearer, Mr. Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi.
Chief Udeogaranya made the declaration in a statement issued in Abuja which he personally signed.
His declaration came some three months after another former APC presidential aspirant, Dr. SKC Ogbonnia, threw his support for Peter Obi after withdrawing support from APCs presidential candidate, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Citing reasons for for dumping APC’s Tinubu, Dr. Ogbonnia premised his action on his poor, fragile health, as well as his shady background.
Speaking in the statement on Tuesday, Udeogaranya cited the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as a clear sign of an Islamisation agenda and despotic government.
He also cited a grave need for Nigerians to shun primordial sentiments and vote the right candidate who will make the best decisions for the country.
Further citing grinding economic plague driving citizens to desperation, he said:
“It needs to be emphasised that the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the All Progressive Congress (APC) being imposed on Nigerians is a clear sign of the Islamisation agenda and despotic government that are to come. Indeed, that ticket and those flying it have nothing but deceit to offer.
“And we further fear that the pack that conceived the Muslim-Muslim ticket and audaciously imposed it on the rest of us will not at some point begin to behead the people who see things differently unless they give up their right of freedom of worship and expression.
“It was before our own eyes that a young female Christian student called Deborah Samuel was sent to her untimely death in the most despicable manner, by stoning, her body set ablaze for allegedly expressing her constitutional right to freedom of expression.
“Her gruesome death culminated to the telling reality that our society is no longer safe to live in as the average Nigerian’s constitutionally-guaranteed right to life is being brutally trampled upon.
“Barely one year ago, our youths engaged in a sweeping, non-violent EndSARS protest, demanding a reformation of our policing agency.
“Sadly, rather than offering succour to the protesting youths, they were most gruesomely mowed down with guns and bullets purchased with our scarce resources.
“Those arms and ammunition were meant to protect the citizenry against aggression.
“But they were turned against those killed; they were used against harmless, defenseless youths for daring to ventilate their feelings.
“They were taken down as if their lives did not matter.”
In conclusion, he declared: “With regard to what I have noted, and not limited to them all, I, Chief Charles Udoka Udeogaranya, endorse the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi as a worthy candidate to pilot the affairs of Nigeria and help to bring to a halt, the perpetual backsliding of Nigeria and possibly reposition Nigeria for better.” Read more.