Imo guber poll: The politics, intrigues

ONE issue that may be discussed for some time in Imo state is the 2015 governorship election that was declared inconclusive to the chagrin of many especially supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to irregularities.

At the conclusion of the tension soaked exercise, the State Governorship Electoral Returning Officer, Professor Ibidapo Obe, declared the election ‘inconclusive’ because the number of cancelled votes (44715) is higher than the margin of win (79,529) by the candidate of the APC and incumbent state governor, Rochas Okorocha.

In the result, Okorocha polled 385,671 while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha got 306,142 votes. Obe stated that the canceled votes span the two senatorial zones of Owerri and Orlu.

Indeed, the Imo contest was one that elicited fear and anxiety among residents. The reasons for these are not far- fetched. They include the fact that though the APC is the government in power in the state, Imo cannot be said to be an APC state.

The state originally belongs to the PDP and it is still dominated by the party. Its major political leaders are staunch members of the PDP. This was further buttressed by the outcome of the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections in which the state was delivered to President Jonathan and the PDP cleared all the three senatorial seats and majority of seats at the House of Representatives.

Since the inception of democracy in 1999, Imo State has been under the control of the PDP until 2007 when internal squabbles within leadership of the party caused it not to present a candidate for the governorship election of that year. Instead it chose to support the candidate of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), Ikedi Ohakim, who won the election and later returned to the PDP.

Four years after Ohakim mounted the saddle, the crisis refused to go and this affected the chances of the party in the 2011 governorship election as Okorocha who was then of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won the election.

Thus, in 2015, while PDP attempted to recapture the seat, the APC planned to consolidate the hold while other parties like APGA, SDP, PDC and AP among others, contested to have a feel of it. That was the epic battle that the state faced.

Intrigues that influenced voting pattern
Although the election has remained inconclusive according to INEC, what is certain is that the battle to occupy the Douglas House from May 29, this year has been narrowed to the APC and PDP. Others will watch from the sideline.

Getting to this level in the political game for the two parties was not an easy one as certain intrigues were employed to outdo the other. Some pundits who felt that it was going to be an easy ride for the PDP, based on the outcome of the March 28 election and perhaps the dominance of the party in the state, were proved wrong by the result, which placed APC ahead of PDP.

The Guardian learnt that Okorocha, knowing that the seat was not a ‘safe haven’ for him had begun early in the life of his administration to plot ways of decimating the PDP completely from the state and entrench the APC.

Apparently realizing how difficult it could be for him to sell his party among the elites and power brokers in the PDP, he was said to have stooped to the level of the common and less privilege in the state to find succor.

One of the strategies he introduced that endeared him to the heart of Imo electorate was the free education from primary to secondary school levels as well as prompt payment of salary of teachers. It was learnt that this policy permeated the grassroots to the point that in Imo, students freely campaigned for his re-election.

Mrs Grace Nwankwo, a house wife told The Guardian at Central School Okwudo, booth 1, Oru East Council where she voted saying, “I know that Ihedioha promised qualitative education, but I don’t trust him on that because we have seen PDP and their style. Ohakim (Ikedi) was here but what he concentrated on doing was to stifle the ordinary people. So it may turn out to be the qualitative education that will see to the sack those who are teaching at the moment and employment of new people. So I decided to vote for Okorocha not because he is the best person, but because he is doing something we can feel and see. I have not paid school fees since he became governor”.

She added that WAEC fees had been cut into half since Okorocha emerged unlike in the previous administrations in the state.

These aside, one other serious issue that played out in the election that influenced voting pattern is the contestants, their senatorial zones as well as the last minute defections into the APC especially by supporters of the PDP. Imo has three senatorial zones of Orlu (Imo West), Okigwe  (Imo North) and Owerri (Imo East). Of the three zones, Okorocha, who is seeking re-election, is the only candidate from his Orlu zone. The zone also has the greatest number of local governments in the state with 12 out of the 27 local governments.

It is followed by Owerri zone with nine local governments which incidentally produced the largest number of contestants in the election including the PDP candidate, Ihedioha, APGA candidate, Emma Iheanacho, Ken Ojiri of AP, Dr Osmond Ukanacho of UPP, Mbamara David of the SDP and Mrs Ngozi Ileghe of Labour party among others.

The Okigwe zone produced only one candidate in Obi Adim, who ran on the platform of the People for Democratic Change (PDC). It was learnt that though the Orlu zone has the likes of the former governor, Achike Udenwa and Senator Hope Uzodinma, who are staunch members of the PDP, they were said to have resolved to put aside their party affiliations to ensure support for their son (Okorocha).

As one of the natives Ikem Orji put it “it is not a question of whether we are PDP or APC, but to ensure that our son is returned. Anyhow you look at it, whether he is performing or not, he will not forget his home, no matter the circumstance.

“That is why no other contestant showed interest in the race here because they know that one of them is occupying the office and need to be supported to go back.”

The development was not the same in Owerri zone, where none of the candidates refused to step down. Perturbed, a member of the PDP Board of Trusteees (BOT), Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu was said to have summoned a meeting of all the contestants where he urged them to step down and support Ihedioha.

He was said to have told them that Ihedioha was better placed to win the election than any of them, adding that the party PDP was more acceptable than any other. Although some of them were said to have left with a promise to “reconsider their position”, none of them eventually stepped down.

A party stalwart in Emekuku Ward 2, Owerri North Council, where Capt Iheanacho and Ken Ojiri come from, Mr Paddy Obinna, said all the candidates refused the advise and went into the election, adding that they succeeded in sharing the votes among themselves in the zone.

Expressing regret over the development, Obinna, who said he was the first chairman of the PDP in the council said, “In the entire Owerri zone, the bulk of the contestants are sharing bits and pieces and they will be getting votes based on the sentiments of he is my brother; but how that translates to winning a vote beyond what they get from their locality is a big question mark.”

On the other hand, the crisis rocking the leadership of the APGA further dealt dangerously on the aspiration of Iheanacho. The faction of the party led by Chris Uche had collapsed his group into the campaign machinery of Ihedioha.

He campaigned vigorously in the state that the party had no governorship candidate and that its members should support the aspiration of Ihedioha whom they have adopted as their sole candidate.

Perhaps, it was the confusion created here that made APGA candidate lose even in his Owerri North Council. The gale of defection few days to the election by prominent members of the PDP dealt a serious blow on the work plan of the party. It was learnt that certain members of the party including Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, said to be a strong force in Okigwe zone, turned their back against PDP for APC less than one week to the election. Ararume, it could be recalled, contested the governorship primary of the party with Ihedioha and was believed to been robbed by the party before taking the matter to court.

While the matter is yet to be attended to, sources said he took the decision to quit the party with his supporters as a way of getting back at the PDP as well as ensure that Ihedioha did not make it in the end.

Another PDP stalwart Vitalis Ajumbe, former ANPP chairman and former Director General of Ohakim Campaign Organization, also decamped to the APC. Chief Bethel Nzimakor, Chief Rex Anunobi among others also followed suit.

Unless the PDP plays its card well and swings victory for itself in the rescheduled election to amass the remaining votes in the cancelled polling units, it may really take some time for the party to rise again in Imo state should the APC get it.

But the APC supporters are not likely to allow anything stop their victory dance that was truncated by the announcement of the inconclusiveness of the exercise on Sunday this time around. That afternoon, they had lined up over fifty buses at the secretariat junction on Port Harcourt expressway leading to INEC headquarters in Owerri, waiting and dancing as the results were being released.