- Loses APC control in Imo, battles to redeem his image
The Ward Congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country, a fortnight ago, exposed the political liabilities of APC leaders in several states, particularly, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. The Ward Congress repealed that besides the state powers at the behest of the governor, Okorocha has no control of grassroots stakeholders in the state.
Accordingly, the result of the congress elections in Imo State pulsated Okorocha’s plot to coercively impose his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as APC candidate to succeed him in 2019.
At the APC ward congress, Okorocha’s loyalists suffered unexpected defeat from the governor’s opponents and political rivals in Imo State. The ward congress brought the Imo governor to his kneels compelling Okorocha to resort to complains and protests of the congress outcome. The governor accuses APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and the National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, of complicity in his defeat in Imo State.
Okorocha protested that Oyegun is conniving with his political opponents in the state to frustrate him because he opposed the chairman’s bid to have his tenure elongated. The governor said he met with the party chairman to inquire on whether the congress had been cancelled but did not get a categorical response.
“I see the chairman, John Oyegun as a man of integrity and he must be very careful not to allow this Imo something to remove his integrity in this country; because as he’s bowing out and aging, not to allow this to dent his political image; because history would not write good about him if he would come out publicly to tell the world that there was congress when there was no congress and that he has received result sheet when they have not seen result sheet. That is not good for our party,” the Imo governor declared.
Okorocha further accused Izunaso, Senator Hope Uzodima and Senator Ben Uwajumogu of plotting to dethrone him as APC leader in Imo State.
Having lost relevance after the shameful defeat in Imo APC, the governor claimed that there was no congress in Imo State; alleging: “Rather, the material for the congress was missing and it was traced to the house of the APC National Organising Secretary.”
Okorocha’s protest of the Ward Congress result led to the suspension of the Local government Congress in Imo State last Saturday. However, the defeat of the governor in the ward congress, which may spiral to the LG and state congresses, marks the end of the road of the Okorocha’s hegemony of Imo politics and the plot to impose his son-in-law as his successor. The Imo governor has, however, been running between pillar and poles, battling to overturn the looming political misfortune and redeem his image.