Okorocha’s in-law ambition: PDP lawmakers join APC to take side

Imo’s Deputy Governor Eze Madumere has been stamping his foot that nothing will stand in his way to becoming the next governor of the state in 2019.

“He has vowed that no man born of a woman could stop his ambition, saying that God remained the ultimate decider of anyone’s future,” a release by his media aide stated on Friday.

But Madumare’s boast might just be empty.

Gov. Rochas Okorocha, who has endorsed his son-in-law and chief of staff Uche Nwosu, has told his deputy governor to forget it, and move on to Senate.

And Okorocha means just that.

Apart from winning the hearts and minds of the state’s APC leadership for his cause, and drawing the sympathies of 24 out of the 27 LGAs in the state, Okorocha has just commandeered the state assembly.

No fewer than 20 out of the 27 members of the Imo State House of Assembly have queued behind the governor. The state assembly comprises 21 APC lawmakers, and 6 PDP lawmakers. Three of the entire House are women.

The resolution to endorse Nwosu was arrived at after the meeting of the House presided over by the Speaker of the House Acho Ihim on Thursday.

Before the PDP lawmakers contended that endorsing a candidate was never a legislative matter to be debated on the floor.

But the lawmakers resolved to endorse Nwosu because of their belief in his capacity to sustain the legacies of the All Progressives Congress administration in the state.

The honourable representing Oguta State constituency and director-general of the Uche Nwosu Campaign Organisation ( Ugwumba Movement Worldwide) told journalists in Owerri.

Hon. Henry Ezediaro revealed other lawmakers already on the Nwosu bandwagon, and among them are Deputy Speaker of the House Ugonna Ozuruigbo (Nwangele State constituency); and a former Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Luguard Osuji (Owerri Municipal).

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Apart from the lawmakers’ belief in Nwosu’s capacity to carry on, their perceived clout to sway things is another reason they are backing the governor.

“Since we have the constitutional right to impeach the governor, we also have the right to back him,” Ezediaro said.

The remaining seven members of the House who were not part of the endorsement might join too.

 “We cannot conclude that they are not with us, so let them speak for themselves,” he said.

Okorocha’s foisting his son-in-law on the party as his successor has drawn criticism from across the nation, and particularly from within the Catholic Church, a big influence on the state politics .

But the governor has developed thick skin to all the barbs.

“Now, seeing Uche Nwosu as the guy to beat in the 2019 election, they now think that there is no other way to stop him than through unwarranted blackmail,” said the governor when supporters of Uche allegedly rucked a Catholic bishop right in the middle of a mass recently.