2027: Abia South APC Endorses Tinubu’s Re-election Bid, Backs Ex-NALDA Boss Paul Ikonne for Senate

APC chieftains, traditional rulers, women and youth groups from across Abia South Senatorial Zone converged on the historic Aba Town Hall on Monday to endorse President Bola Tinubu for a second term in 2027, while simultaneously throwing their weight behind Prince Paul Ikonne as the party’s preferred candidate for the senatorial seat long held by Enyinnaya Abaribe.

The gathering, branded under the “Asiwaju Tsunami” movement, was one of the most visible pro-Tinubu rallies to emerge from the South East, a region that has historically been resistant to the APC at the presidential level.

Ikonne, the immediate-past Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) under former President Muhammadu Buhari, has since formalised his ambition by picking APC nomination and expression of interest forms. He told journalists that his ambition was driven by the need to provide effective and purposeful representation for Abia South from 2027, and issued a blunt message to the incumbent: it was time for Abaribe to go.

Abaribe, who has spent nearly two decades in the Senate, has brought no meaningful development to the district, Ikonne argued, a charge the APC aspirant has repeated across multiple media appearances in recent weeks.

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The contest is shaping up as a crowded one. Also eyeing the seat under the APC platform is Erondu Uchenna Erondu Jnr., a member of the Abia State House of Assembly who represents Obingwa West, the same local government as Abaribe himself, adding an intra-party dimension to an already competitive race.

Abaribe, who on monday decamped from the ADC to labour Party, had recently claimed that President Tinubu did not win the 2023 election and could not win again in 2027, remarks Ikonne dismissed as the panic of a politician losing his grip on the grassroots.

At the Aba rally, Ikonne declared that the South East political tide was turning. “The Asiwaju tsunami expected in 2027 is starting from Abia South,” he told the crowd, pointing to what he described as organic, grassroots support for the president’s reforms across the zone.

He claimed that approximately 90 per cent of the PDP structure in the South East had collapsed into the APC, a figure that, if accurate, would mark a significant shift in a region where opposition parties have dominated for decades.

Whether the endorsement rally translates into actual votes remains the defining test. Abaribe is a seasoned political operator with deep roots in the district and remains a prominent national voice within the opposition.

With Paul Ikonne’s purchase of nomination forms, and this endorsement the contest for the Abia South senatorial seat has entered a defining phase one that will pit the APC’s federal alignment strategy against an incumbent for almost two decades.