On Saturday, July 23, 2016 the people of Okigwe zone will be voting to elect their Senator, while the people of Oru-East and Isiala Mbano
state constituencies will be voting to elect their representatives into the
state House of Assembly in the re-run election to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It will be recalled that the Appeal court cancelled the previous Senatorial election held last year in Okigwe zone as well as that of Oru-East and Isiala Mbano state constituencies hence the need for INEC to re-conduct the elections.
Against the backdrop of this electoral development, the state
Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha, as a matter of responsibility and unbridled
concern wishes to appeal to the people of the state in general and people of
Okigwe Zone and the two State Constituencies in particular to ensure peace and
also display avowed patriotism.
Already, the state governor has, to a very large extent, charged
the superintending agency, INEC and all the security agencies deployed for the
election to ensure the security of lives and property, and to also ensure free
and fair election.
What this action portends is that there will be no room for
thuggery and there will be no room for rigging. These Imo vices will be grossly
resisted, and anybody caught doing any of them will have himself or herself to
blame. A word is enough for the wise.
Parents are therefore advised to guard against their children or
wards being recruited to work as thugs, because anyone caught in that act will
live to regret it. The people’s votes in these re-run polls must count. Both
thuggery and rigging have become outfashioned and they would not be allowed to
surface in the Saturday’s election.
The compound interest of the governor in the whole exercise is
to ensure that those elected by their people at the polling units or through
the ballot boxes will be declared winners. This is not negotiable. What is
worth doing is worth doing fine.
The traditional politicians or political leaders who have so
much believed in thuggery and rigging as the only ways to win election over the
years should better drop the idea because they will never be allowed to do
that. One wishes they take this candid advice.
And owing to the importance the government attaches to the
re-run – election, Friday, July 22, 2016 has been declared work-free day to
enable indigenes from the affected areas to go and exercise their franchise and
elect those who would represent them.
The governor prays that God would continue to bless the state
and her people and has also urged all those who will vote on Saturday not to
let patriotic citizens of the state down.
Meanwhile, the support base of the APC candidate in the
rescheduled election, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, seems to have swollen across
social strata and political party lines.
This time, notable Igbo leaders across
political and religious dividends have called on the good people of Okigwe zone
to ensure the emergence of the former Imo Assembly Speaker to further enhance
the propagation of the Igbo cause.
Some of the leaders who bared their
minds at the sidelines of the unity meeting of Igbo leaders which took place at
the Imo International Convention Centre, IICC, Owerri, described the
forthcoming rescheduled election in Okigwe zone as very strategic to the
welfare of Ndigbo in the present political dispensation in the country.
One of them, Chief Azuka Okwuolisa,
regretted that Ndigbo had remained behind the driver's seat in the political
equations of the country since the present administration came on board, owing
to what he called "our myopic mistake" during the 2015 general
elections.
According to him, "Our people must
know that power is taken and not given. We must acknowledge the fact that we
made a myopic mistake. As such, we must do everything within our powers to
right the wrongs of yesterday to relaunch our political will back to the
epicenter of governance in this country".
He noted that the lot seems to have
fallen on the shoulders of the Okigwe people to redeem Ndigbo in its current
political quagmire.
Chief Okwuolisa, enjoined the people of
Okigwe zone to shun political party sentiments and vote for the total
emancipation of the South east in view of the country's political stance by
overwhelmingly queuing behind the APC candidate, whom he said possesses the
will to fight for his people.
In a related development, the council of
Traditional rulers in Okigwe zone, have thrown their weight behind the
candidature of the former Imo Assembly Speaker in the July 23 rescheduled
polls.
Chairman of the council and the
paramount ruler of Ihim autonomous community, HRM Eze Matthew Oweni, who
dropped this hint in an interview with Journalists, described Rt. Hon. Benjamin
Uwajumogu, as the true son of Okigwe zone who has paid his dues for the
positive advancement of the area.
He added that the council of Traditional
rulers of the zone, after painstaking observations of the two leading
candidates in the rescheduled polls, endorsed the APC candidate for his
pragmatic approach exhibited in tackling the multifarious challenges
confronting his people.
Eze Oweni, who conveyed the resolutions
of the royal fathers in Okigwe zone, urged the PDP candidate in the re-run to
show understanding and patriotism for the cause of Ndi-Okigwe by supporting his
brother (Uwajumogu) in other to move not only Okigwe zone forward but Imo state
in general.
He however called on the people of the
zone to respect the wise decisions of the royal fathers and rally-round the APC
candidate in his quest to better the lots of his people.
