By Omeiza Ajayi
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) House of Representatives candidate for Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State, Ambassador Ephraim Iyke Nwonu, has dumped the party and defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress APC in support of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Speaking on Saturday in Abuja, Nwonu, who formerly supported the ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he was walking away from the contest even though his name still stands on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal as the party’s candidate.
He said, “I am the official ADC candidate for the Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency on the INEC portal, but I have decided to jettison and sacrifice that ambition because of my unalloyed support for Mr. President and my state governor.”
He added that he was joining “other APC stakeholders in Ebonyi State and my constituency to deliver President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the governor.”
By his own account, Nwonu’s ties to Tinubu predate the current political era, running back to a friendship forged in the Senate in 1992 between the President and his late mentor, Senator Polycarp Nwite, under whom Nwonu served as secretary of the now-defunct Democratic Party of Nigeria DPN in Ebonyi State.
“Senator Nwite appointed me as the secretary of the defunct DPN in Ebonyi State, so I have every reason to be where Tinubu is,” he said.
Nwonu pointed to a stretch of federal roads and bridge projects across Ebonyi and neighbouring states as the clearest argument for his switch, naming the Ndibe Beach Bridge connecting Afikpo North to Itigidi in Cross River State, a 125.5-kilometre corridor running through Cross River, Ebonyi, Benue, Nasarawa and Abuja, and the ongoing dualisation of the Enugu-Abakaliki-Ogoja Expressway. He also listed the Onuebonyi–Vanco Junction to Abakaliki–Afikpo road, a new flyover at Peat Junction in Onueke, and the Obubra-Noyo-Oferekpe interstate road as evidence of what he called the administration’s “infrastructure footprints” in the zone.
Apart from roads, he placed the number of federal appointments handed to Ebonyi indigenes under Tinubu at 23, describing it as the state’s largest-ever share of national appointments. Those gains, he argued, leave no room for opposition figures to make headway in the Southeast in 2027.
Asked about the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, Nwonu was dismissive: “There is no threat whatsoever. Anyone on the ballot is free to try their luck, but Peter Obi’s ambition poses no threat to Mr President in the Southeast, especially considering what this administration has delivered to Ebonyi State. President Tinubu will win comfortably.”
He backed the claim with findings from a survey his non-governmental organisation ran jointly with the Ebonyi State Ministry of Information, presented at a two-day workshop in the state, saying, “Our findings show that majority of our people now recognise the achievements of Mr President and are ready to reciprocate his goodwill with massive votes.”
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