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As the 2019 general elections draw closer, fresh unhealthy developments have continued to emerge with indications that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, will again loss the South East geopolitical zone.
APC had lost almost completely the entire South East comprising the five Igbo speaking states of Abia, Anambara, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo in the 2015 general elections. Only Imo State that the Governor, RochasOkorocha gotre-elected under the APC in 2015.
With the re-election of Okorocha who doubles as the Chairman of APC Governors Forum, election of over 20 members of Imo State of House of Assembly and Senator Ben Uwajimogu on the platform of APC as wellas the emergence of Senator Ostia Izunaso as the party’s NationalOrganising Secretary made Imo the stronghold of APC in the entire South East.
After the 2015 general elections, the appointment of a Minister from each South East state based on constitutional stipulation and other appointments as well as defections such as that of the former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani and Senator Hope Uzodinma(Imo) with many others started making APC to be on ground ahead of the 2019 general elections.
However, as Chinua Achebe said; “Things Fall Apart,The Centre Could Not Hold”. Thus, Imo as the centre of APC in the South East could not hold, therefore things are falling apart with monumental negative consequences for the ruling party in this zone.
Fingers are being pointed at Governor Okorocha, the arrowhead of APC in Igboland and singers of the discordant tunes have been explicit that the Governor’s antics are capable of incurring loss for the party not just in Imo but the whole South East.
Not too long ago, the forum of Imo APC Stakeholders stormed the National Secretariat of APC and lamented that if not checked, Okorocha’s draconian acts such as the plot to impose his son in-law as the party’s Governorship candidate will spell doom for APC.
Aggregating the misgivings of the forum, Ben Uwajumugu, Senator representing Imo North called on APC National Leadership to intervene urgently before Okorocha completely jeopardized the efforts of selling the party in the South East to avoid the repeat of what happened in 2015 in 2019.
“Today, all is not well in Imo State. If you don’t do something to rescue the situation it will be a miracle for APC to win Imo State in the forthcoming elections.
“It will not only be Imo State but the damage that has occurred in Imo State will affect the other states in the South East. As we tell you today if you conduct a poll on all the APC members in the South East less than 10% will support the continuation of what Rochas has imposed on Imo State and in the South East and there is no way one can incarcerate and deprive every members of this party their hope ad and aspiration in 2019.
“The Governor appropriated the powers of NWC, the power of the zonal and state EXCO of APC and dished out certificates and recognized people in what he called mock election.
” You have to make a statement now let Igbo people know that there is an NWC that is ready to come to justice and deliver us from the wicked hands of RochasOkorocha who makes Imo people keep crying about APC so that the people will know that that is not the life style of APC”, the Senator insisted.
Similarly, OkeyIkoro, Chairman Imo APC Stakeholders Forum presented a vote of no confidence on Governor Okorocha at a recent meeting of over 100 stakeholders including, Deputy Governor, EzeMadumere, OsitaIzunaso, APC National Organising Secretary,16 out of the 21 APC local government chairmen and some serving and past members of the state executive council.
Ikoro called on the party’s National Leadership to urgently address the disputation to avoid jeopardising the party’s electoral chances in the state and indeed the South East region ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Barely two weeks after the pilgrimage of Imo APC stakeholders to Abuja, the party’s ward and local government congresses triggered another war in the ranks of APC with a sharp battle divide between Okorocha command and Izunaso& Co command.
It became obvious that the Izunaso command was winning the war and Okorocha command was resisting, therefore, throwing Imo into a state of political Armageddon with pockets of violence.
During the ward congresses for instance, Okorocha could not withstand the political heat exuded by the ‘Abuja commandants’ as he ran to Daura, President MuhammaduBuhari’s village, may be to tell him to intervene. The situation with the local government congress was the same.
Apparently left with no option, Okorocha sponsored a delegation of three Imo APC House of Representatives members loyal to him and 24 members of the Imo State House of Assembly who were allegedly given N5 million each on a protest visit to the APC National Secretariat to demand cancelation of the results of the ward and local government congresses as according to them, congresses did not take place.
AchorIhim, Speaker of the Imo state House of the Assembly who led the Okorocha delegation told journalists after a closed door meeting with the APC National Working, NWC that, they came to reconfirm the fact that there was no election(congresses) held in all the wards and local governments in Imo state.
“There was no congress in Imo state and we are here to reaffirm, to send and demand that an announcement be made for a new date for the ward congresses, Local congresses and we can now talk about the state congresses.
” We have affirmed our stand with our governor, we are still standing with our governor. He is the face of the APC in the South East. Of course the young man has done so well that without him, there would have been no APC in the South East in the first place. Imo state in particular is the fulcrum of APC and it cannot be toyed with.
“As such we demand that they issue statement and announcement be made about the congresses that did not hold. The new date should be announced and the whole things should be ratified so that there will be peace in the state. The shenanigans that we saw can never be taken for congresses.
Okorocha also lost at this stage as the NWC did not act in line with the pleas or threats of his forerunners but rather uphold the contested results with favour the Izunaso camp.
In a swift reaction, the Imo APC Stakeholders Forum in counter notice copied to the APC National Leadership, the President, APC Governors and Security Agencies signed by Senators Ben Uwajimogu, Hope Uzodinma, IfeanyiAraraume, OsitaIzunaso among others recounted that Okorocha was the reason APC performed abysmally in the last general elections and if urgent steps are not taken the same thing would repeat in the next rounds of election.
“You will recall that this State was the first State that the President visited as President elect to campaign to assure and salvage the almost lost chance of our APC State on account of the total rejection of this governor by the people of Imo State and the entire South East, which was clear in the results of the presidential and national assembly elections wherein the party won only 5% of votes in the Presidential and only 2 of the 41 South east seats in Federal House and none at all in the Senate.
“That result was a consequence of the action of a governor who being the only in the party in the South East had by unbridled theft, ruined the economy of Imo State where for the 43 months to 2015 and the 36 months in this second tenure had sequestered all the allocation to the 27 Local Government of the State for the use of himself and his family
The group noted that the ward and local government congresses were conducted credibly except that Okorocha with his cohorts who felt rejected by the delegates resorted to perpetration of violence plunging the state into anarchy which calls for a state of emergency.
“This attempt to drag the state into further violence in the face of a non- existent state assembly only, points to the complete breakdown of an already non-existent governance for which the state of emergency envisaged in the Section 305 of our Constitution is to be declared.
“As our Party Chairman, kindly bring to the notice of our dear President that should the governor in his megalomania fueled by a debased mental state procures further violence in his child like tantrums, a state of emergency in Imo State would be a natural consequence.
Dramatically, while the anti Okorocha group was already bathing in the euphoria of victory preparatory to the state congress, the pro Okorocha group was also not resting on its oars as it procured an interim injunction from a Federal High Court, Owerri stopping the state congress few hours to its conduct.
James Kwen, Abuja
