How S’Court ruling on LG polls disrupts Okorocha’s ‘third term’ plot in Imo

The order by the Supreme Court on Imo state government not to conduct local government elections pending conclusion of cases seeking to establish status of duly elected local government chairmen and councilors wrongly sacked by Governor Rochas Okorocha in 2011, leaves the governor plotting a new option.

This is because the order effectively checkmates his plans to raise a new crop of delegates that would enable him to deliver his nominees at the primary election to select candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that would contest in the 2019 governorship election.

Okorocha’s decision to push for the election irrespective of constitutional breaches he courted with the dissolution of the elected council executives came as his joker after he worked himself into the wrong APC bracket with his kind of politics.

For playing out badly, Okorocha lost a great number of those who would, by their positions in his government, become delegates at the next primary election to the Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume camp.

Despite severally boasting that the State executives, members of the state House of Assembly and leadership of APC in the state are with him, Ripples Nigeria can authoritatively disclose that greater percentage of the membership of the state assembly and leadership of the party in Imo State, had long dumped Okorocha and teamed up with Sen. Araraume.

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Also, none of the Senators representing Imo state at the Senate is backing Okorocha. While Hope Uzodimma and Samuel Anyanwu are pushing forward their own governorship ambitions, Sen. Benjamin Uwajumogu is a very close ally of Araraume and has worked very hard to break the rank of persons who would likely be delegates of the party at the next primary.

Besides, most members of the House of Representatives from the party are looking beyond Okorocha and plotting their graphs with the Araraume camp.

Ripples Nigeria also gathered that Okorocha has also lost grounds within the national leadership of APC, with National Organizing Secretary of the party, Sen. Osita Izunaso, keeping an eye on every of his moves within the national executive. This fueled insinuations of his romance with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

It was gathered that with these forces massed against him, which has seen the Araraume camp having the upper hand and Okorocha losing at the national level, the governor sensed a huge hurdle is already in place towards achieving his aim of delivering his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as governorship candidate of the APC in Imo state.

It was learnt that it was for this reason that Okorocha opted to hurriedly organize a local government election, which he had scheduled for June, to enable him raise a new set of would-be delegates that will do his bidding for his son-in-law.

According to our findings, the local government elections will bring in about 300 delegates consisting of local government chairmen and councilors.

This, Ripples Nigeria was told, is Okorocha’s joker with which he intends to torpedo his checkmating by the Araraume camp.

By ordering a stop to the planned election, the Supreme Court effectively foils Okorocha’s plans making it more difficult for him to deliver his son-in-law at the primary election.

This would work well for a section of the Imo political circles who believe that it is morally wrong for Okorocha to seek to impose his son-in-law on the state as governor. Included in this group are executives of APC in most of the local government areas who despite being paid to embark on endorsement visits to the Government House Owerri, also think that Okorocha has had enough.

Many in Imo state are also happy with the order of the Supreme Court as they wonder why Okorocha, who dissolved the council executives in 2011 and had promised on four occasions to hold elections and failed, suddenly became extremely serious with the one he fixed for June, in the twilight of his romance with governance.

Araraume’s strong grip on APC structures in both the national and state levels is also said to be reason Okorocha is strongly in support of efforts to push away the John Odigie-Oyegun-Oyegun-led executive of the party.

According to sources very close to the party, Okorocha’s sudden romance with, and support for Bola Tinubu, in the battle to get Oyegun and his team off the APC leadership, was premised on Okorocha’s believe that a new executive will yield grounds to him and make him regain control of APC in Imo state.

Ripplesnigeria.com learnt that should Okorocha lose out again, he may activate his other option which is to seek soft grounds with the SDP.

By Femi Qudus…

 

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