Abia PDP Gubernatorial Primary Election: Deceit And Betrayal Are Not Virtues

Our attention has been drawn to social media publications wherein individuals who are unfamiliar with the facts sought to blame Chief John Okiyi Kalu for the unfortunate events of May 25th, 2026, during the so-called gubernatorial primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State. As is well known, since the announcement of the purported result of the primary election by the state chairman, Amah Abraham, our principal has deliberately maintained studied silence to allow room for the party leadership to review and take appropriate decisions.

Beyond the purpose of responding to the tissues of lies in some of the referenced publications, we have also chosen not to join issues with individuals whose conscience is flogging and nudging to follow the more honourable path of Judas Iscariot, their ancestor and mentor, but wish to state the following indisputable facts to guide the public on what actually transpired:

1. On Friday, 23rd May 2026, our principal, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, was going about his pre-planned consultations with party members when he got a call from the PDP state chairman, Amah Abraham, informing him that the leader of the party in the state and former governor of Abia State, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had directed him (Amah) to “deliver” him (JOK) as the consensus governorship candidate, and hence he should prepare the traditional gift for members of the election committee sent from Abuja to conduct the election. According to Mr Abraham, there will be no direct primary but the committee will return to Abuja on Monday to conclude the process of consensus building in favour of our principal.

2. Following that conversation and assurance of compliance with all the requests by the State Chairman and upon confirmation that there was no need to continue with pre-planned engagement with the 184 ward leaders as he (Amah Abraham) has “taken care of everything”, Chief Okiyi directed the principal coordinators of his team to continue with only social media engagements and meetings with key party leaders. He did not divulge to the team, at the time, the instruction from the party chairman which was said to have been issued by the Leader, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu.

3. When we were informed on Saturday that two individuals closely associated with our leader, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, told party leaders in Obingwa LGA and Abia South senatorial zone in the presence of Chairman Amah Abraham that he (Dr Ikpeazu) has endorsed and directed that members support one Kelechi Anosike, who was largely unknown to our party members in Abia State, we alerted the leader, as that was his LGA and Senatorial Zone. He assured us that he didn’t authorize Amah and co to do what they were doing and has also called his LGA chairman to make that point. We suggested he also speak with Amah Abraham and others closely associated with him that were involved as we suspected that there might be a scheme to deliberately disarm and derail us from our very successful and non traditional engagement details which were unfortunately shared with Mr Abraham by our principal.

4. On that same Saturday, Chief Okiyi proceeded on a pre-birthday celebration visit to Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, with whom he had a long-standing political issue, to plead that they move beyond it since the matter arose as a result of misinformation fed to both leaders. They finally resolved the matter without our principal at any time making his case for support during primaries because that was not part of his agenda for the visit. His objective was simply to resolve the long-standing issue for the sake of party unity and also celebrate the birthday of Distinguished Senator Mao, who was scheduled to return to Abuja the following morning to join family and friends for his 25th May birthday anniversary celebration.

5. Surprisinglly, on Sunday morning, 25th May 2026, after receiving confidential intelligence that Chairman Amah Abraham and his gang were with the members of the Election Committee throughout the night of Saturday with Kelechi Anosike in tow, in the course of which a source within the committee confirmed that Amah specifically told the members of the committee to deliver Kelechi Anosike at all cost in exchange for huge sums of money, our principal called the State Chairman and demanded to be taken to members of the committee as well as given access to the e-register of members' data for the state to enable us to do the needful with the rumored primary election Mr Amah and co were promoting. Amah’s response was, "Forget what you are hearing; within 24 hours you will know the kind of person I am." That statement actually came through within 24 hours, as our principal finally got to know the real Amah Abraham and others involved in the scheme. ?

6. Later that Sunday morning, State Chairman Amah Abraham summoned all the Chairmen of the 17 LGAs to the state secretariat, where he proceeded to direct them individually to go and return Anosike in exchange for N1m for each of them and N2m for each member of the state working committee. He once more informed them that the leader, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, endorsed Anosike and wants him to be the candidate of the party. Upon receiving the intelligence, our team once more alerted the leader, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, on what was going on in his name, and he denied involvement and vowed to reach Amah Abraham and his cohorts to cease and desist. ?AT NO TIME WERE WE ASKED TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION, SUBMIT LIST OF AGENTS OR INVITED TO WITNESS COLLATION AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANY RESULT BY AMAH ABRAHAM OR ANY MEMBER OF THE STATE WORKING COMMITTEE. WE NEVER HAD ANY FORMAL MEETING WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE ELECTION COMMITTEE FROM ABUJA TO BRIEF US ON ANY PLANNED DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION AND THE MODALITIES.

7. After Amah Abraham subsequently forcefully seized the role of returning officer and announced results for the purported PDP guber primary election on Sunday, 25th May 2026, our principal left Umuahia to return to Abuja on Monday via Port Harcourt. On his way to the airport, he sent messages to the leader of the party, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, chronicling what transpired in his name and concluded that if Dr Ikpeazu actually directed Amah and co to deliver Kelechi Anosike, he (JOK) has no issues, as he can never fight his leader but rather will move on with his life. On the other hand, if our leader (Dr Okezie Ikpeazu) did not give the directive, he should consider arresting the process in Abuja to save the party in Abia State and his leadership from mutiny cum image battering that he might not easily recover from given what transpired in 2023 within the Abia PDP family.

8. On same Monday, the state Chairman, Amah Abraham, and his gang invited Mr Anosike to a meeting with members of the state working committee where those said to have supported Anosike were each paid N2m along with N1m for each LGA Chairman that played ball.

9. Subsequently, our principal addressed his key supporters via teleconference and pleaded with them to stand down to allow the party leadership to decide one way or another. Indeed, he told us he does not have any dog in the ongoing fight, as he cannot fight for deceitful people who chose to collect money to sell the party’s mandate.

10. On Tuesday, 27th May 2026 Amah Abraham and his group arrived Abuja to submit the concocted result while insisting that the Leader of the party, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu gave the directive for them to do everything they did.

11. Make no mistake about this, we have no issues with someone giving money and other gifts to party leaders because that happens during primary elections and it is considered a tradition within PDP. Yet after collecting the money, our party leaders will always do the right thing in the interest of the party as opposed to being coaxed into selling off the soul and spirit of the party under cover of deceit and betrayal. The award of numbers as votes cast by voters is also not strange in the Nigerian political environment yet we had hoped that a party seeking to wrestle power partly for the purpose of redeeming itself from some of its past mistakes will either approach through consensus or at most a transparent direct primary election that gives every aspirant equal opportunity.

12. At no time were we asked to submit the posters we printed for the possibility of direct primaries. We were not asked to send representatives and indeed nobody saw it fit to discuss the modalities of any direct primary election with us. The obvious objective was to pull wool over our eyes through deceit and subterfuge orchestrated from the top.

13. We have already informed our leader, HE Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, that we are not interested in any “refund of expenses” because that was not why our principal joined the race for the party’s ticket. He also made it known that he does not wish to be in the same room with the ringleaders of the elaborate game of deceit and betrayal within the leadership of the party in Abia State and in the coming days he will discuss with his supporters on way forward.

13. For the avoidance of doubt, if any aspect of our foregoing narrative is challenged, we shall not hesitate to release audio and video evidence as well as text communications with all the aforementioned.

15. To us, nothing was lost; instead, we gained new knowledge about the people we associated with for many years. If the party and our Leader have decided on who should be guber candidate, so be it. People get what they deserve, and that reflects who they intrinsically are. Our position remains unchanged: IF OUR LEADER, HE DR OKEZIE IKPEAZU, ACTUALLY DIRECTED THE STATE CHAIRMAN AND HIS AIDES TO EXECUTE THE DECEIT AND BETRAYAL AGAINST OUR PRINCIPAL HE WILL NOT FIGHT IT NO MATTER THE PRESSURE BUT WILL RATHER MOVE ON QUIETLY. IF THE NAME OF OUR LEADER WAS FRAUDULENTLY USED IT IS INCUMBENT ON HIM TO DO THE NEEDFUL.

16. As per those urging us to petition or sue, please forget it, as our principal does not believe in wasting his time and resources to impose himself on those who will ultimately take money to do the wrong thing. Let the dead bury the dead while the dual spirits of “ofo na ogu” and “o metara buru” roam freely within Abia PDP henceforth.

Thank you.

-JOK Media Team

29th May 2026