Members of Okigwe LGA Political Leaders Forum have voiced out their support for the aspiration of Hon. Chief Acho Ihim (Onwa) as the next Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly. Chief Ihim, they contended, has worked hard and remained loyal enough to be so rewarded.
Speaking exclusively to Community Watchdog Newspaper correspondent last Thursday April 30, 2015, at Okigwe municipal Council, a member of the Forum, Ijeoma O. Ijeoma who is also a community leader in Ezinnachi Okigwe, recalled that during one of his recent campaign rallies in the area, preceding the 2015 general elections, the Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha, promised to make sure that Hon. Chief Dr. Acho Ihim becomes the next Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly if re-elected by the Okigwe electorate, for which he pleaded with them to support and vote for him and other APC candidates. He stated that since the people of Okigwe LGA have fulfilled their own part of the bargain by accordingly re-electing Acho Ihim into the state House of Assemby, it is the turn of Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha to live up to his words and expectation and make good his promise to make sure that Hon. Acho Ihim becomes the next Speaker of Imo House of Assembly.
Chief Ijeoma added that at the same occasion, Okorocha had pledged that no fresh or newly elected member would be considered for the Speakership since they are highly in-experienced and neophytes for the job. They therefore urged Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha to ensure that the Speakership position does not elude Okigwe council LGA, this time around. They also recalled that Okorocha is highly indebted to Okigwe council that gave him the highest number of votes in 2011 within the zone, without getting adequate reward for their support and endorsement.
Acho Ihim according to the forum is the only qualified member-elect desiring to become the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly having been elected previously as an executive Chairman, appointed T. C. Chairman and presently serving as the Chief Whip of the Imo State House of Assembly for nearly four years as well as an intellectual property who has invested so-much in human capital development and the education of the child.
Speaking further, Chief Ijeoma of the Okigwe LGA Political Leaders Forum expressed surprise that Governor Okorocha who denied them an opportunity to produce the next Senator of Okigwe zone could be contemplating, as presently reported in the press, the election of someone else other than Acho Ihim as Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly after assuring them that he will use the position to compensate them once they support Chief Ben Uwajumogu for the Senate which they also did. He then argued that with Ihitte Uboma LGA producing the outgoing speaker after consecutively producing a Deputy Speaker, the Ehime Mbano, the Senator Elect and with Isiala Mbano producing the member-elect for the Okigwe North Federal House of Representatives while Obowo produced that of Okigwe South Federal Constituency. It would be a great disservice if the post of Speaker eludes the people of Okigwe LGA who have collectively and unanimously endorsed Chief (Dr.) Hon. Acho Ihim for the position, he concluded.
