It was shocks galore for the embattled governorship candidate of Imo PDP, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as he stepped out with a very long convoy to test the stormy political waters of Imo state. He was coming out from the political cocoon of Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency to trade tackles with the likes of Owelle Rochas Okorocha of APC, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho of APGA and others who are now veterans in the game of guts and cash.
Right from the World Bank Area where the motorcade took off, a bewildered spectatorship expressed shocks at the wild display of arrogance, splendor and opulence by the Ihedioha led campaign train. A certain lady who was busy arranging wares in her shanty shop at Area A of World Bank, Housing Estate Owerri, after watching in total bewilderment exclaimed, “after this wild display of wealth, they will increase secondary school fees to #20,000 per term per pupil”. With that she dismissed the campaign train with a mere wave of hand and nostalgia.
At the control post axis, a group of young ladies apparently taken by surprise at the burgeoning lengthy convoy of people and vehicles led by Emeka Ihedioha, after feeling totally intimidated and overwhelmed, playfully stated, “Ukachukwu na the same people”. As if that was not enough, an eye witness account also stated that a group of youths along Okigwe road, Owerri sameday threw sachets of water and rained abuses on Chief Emeka Ihedioha campaign train accusing it of insensitivity and false claims, wondering how one person could engage in such grandstanding and comic display of affluence as a mere legislature.
They cited the subsisting legal battle over who actually won the PDP primary election and ended up describing his willful act of embarking on the campaign as possible contempt of court and his action subjudice. They advised him to wait until the court disposes off with the case challenging PDP over the actual outcome of the governorship primary election before he could go ahead to campaign since the courts had granted an injunction restraining PDP, from prejudicing the case by going ahead to submit a name without waiting for the conclusion of the matter. Ignoring the rule of law and arbitrary brigandage is his undoing”, they uttered.
Some PDP leaders in Imo state who spoke to the Community Watchdog stated that the PDP in Imo state as presently constituted is no more than an extension of the campaign structure of Emeka Ihedioha since he single handedly appointed the principal officers in the party. Ihedioha they disclosed had replaced the former Deputy State Chairman, Chief Marcellinus Nlemigbo with General Rowland Ogbonna. He also appointed Eze Duruiheoma as Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) Abuja, to enable him impose Chief Nnamdi Anyaehie on Imo PDP as State Chairman. He had earlier frustrated Blyden Amajirionwu out of office as State Publicity Secretary, laid ambushed and attacked him with thugs at Ihitte/Uboma during George Egu’s thanksgiving service at Onicha, and later replaced him with Enyinnaya Onuegbu. During the National Assembly primary election, the same Emeka Ihedioha encouraged Enyinnaya Onuegbu to contest for the Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency with the condition that in the event he loses the governorship primary election Enyinnbaya Onuegbu should withdraw f or him, but when he refused to sign a pact to withdraw for him, he caused his failure in favour of Hon. Bede Eke. Before then, he had solely imposed one Kizito Onuoha on the party as the State Publicity Secretary. They now wondered how PDP expects to win with personal friends and co-horts of Ihedioha constituting the State Executive Committee of Imo PDP.
The worst case scenario was however the shocking waves sent across the state by the leadership of the National Association of Imo State Students (NAISS), debunking claims by Emeka Ihedioha that he enjoys their endorsement. This was coming weeks after Emeka Ihedioha was accused of appropriating victory albeit criminally at the Imo PDP governorship primary election held at the Dan Anyiam Stadium Owerri, using a colleague of his at the Federal House of Representatives as primary election committee chairman and purporting to have scored a total of 364 votes including voided votes, to emerge as PDP candidates. Imo students have also accused him of purporting their collective endorsement at the expense of other candidates. In a release disassociating themselves and affiliates from any such purported claims of preference and fake endorsement for Ihedioha, NAISS described as total falsehood and misleading, the announcement to that effect.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday January 5, 2015, the President of the National Association of Imo State Students (NAISS), Comr. Sabinus Nwachukwu refuted the publication saying, “no such thing happened”. Comr. Sabinus Nwachukwu however maintained that they were rather invited for a Christmas carol session (cantata) by the Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives who doubles as their patron and that at no time did they deliberate on or endorse him as candidate. The NAISS President had continued by saying that the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha has taken it as a responsibility to celebrate Christmas Carol with the students since 2012, and has always invited students leaders to join him for just this purpose and wondered why he would deceitfully or dubiously appropriate the 2014 Christmas Cantata in his house as an endorsement by Imo students. He therefore asked the general public to discountenance with that insinuation saying, “there was no truth in it”.
In a related development, the Senate President of the Union, Rt. Comr. Celestine Uzoma wondered aloud how and why the students will go ahead to endorse the Deputy Speaker when they have already congratulated him for clinching his party’s governorship ticket alongside other candidates, as concerned stakeholders in the Imo project. A congratulatory message he quipped cannot be taken for an endorsement otherwise other governorship candidate who were equally congratulated can assume to have been endorsed by the students.
The President therefore advised Imo state students to remain violently resolute as they watch events unfold in the run down to the 2015 general election, and never allow themselves to be hoodwinked by anybody.
Courtesy: Community Watchdog Newspaper
