Undoubtedly, Imo State will be one of the hottest spots among the states in Nigeria where the fast approaching 2015 elections will hold.
Strong indications that residents of the Eastern Heartland, as the state is fondly called, are sitting on a keg of gunpowder ready to explode any moment have emerged.
The fiasco that characterised Wednesday’s botched debate arranged by the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri was another eye opener to the growing animosity among governorship candidates and political parties in Imo State. The dastardly acts of fighting in the House of God as well as the desecration of the Altar and molestation of a Catholic priest at the Maria Assumpta premises, venue of the debate was the climax of the much anticipated warfare among the warring factions. The skirmishes which portends for Nigeria’s nascent democracy implies that theatre of war is imminent in the political hemisphere of Imo in the weeks ahead. The desperation among political parties and their henchmen to the extent of taking their bloody war to the altar of God is a strong warning that troubles and the concerned stakeholders are not willing to play by the rules of God further increased the belief that the 2015 elections will be free-for-all.
Prior to the inglorious Catholic Debate saga, there have been periodic altercations among the parties in the state. On Sunday, APGA and APC chieftains locked horns in the streets of Owerri over billboards to the extent that the governorship flag bearer, Capt Emma Ihenacho according to reports escaped blows from top government officials who outnumbered him at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police for Operations when both parties were invited for peaceful talks over billboards destruction.
Only recently, widows who came on a protest to government house Owerri were battered by persons suspected to be hired APC thugs who inflicted various degrees of injuries on them. The widows where victimised when it was alleged that they were either PDP members or recruited by the PDP to discredit the rescue mission government piloted by Okorocha.
Trumpeta was reliably informed on Wednesday that APC members and their suspected hired thugs also pummelled to death an APGA supporter sporting uniform of the governorship flag bearer moments after he left the Maria Assumpta premises when the debate failed.
It was however learnt that in the build-up to the elections coming up in few weeks time, parties have turned higher institutions in the state to fertile ground for recruitment of thugs and members of various secret cults for the election. The newspaper was informed that money bag politicians hire the students with petty stipends and gifts to join their rallies and campaigns. The students and cult groups are also converted to “attack boys” intermittently.
This newspaper however gathered that a first class Commissioner in Okorocha’s government, said to be powerful in the governor’s campaign outfit and cabinet (names withheld) uses his youthful disposition and status as an alumnus of a higher institution in the state to recruit political thugs for the party. Trumpeta learnt that the suspected thugs who vandalised the Altar at the Obiri Odenigbo debate ground, and attacked priest and women at the venue were recruited by the said Commissioner from Imo State University, IMSU, Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO, and Federal Polytechnic Nekede for the job of extending assault of perceived political opponents in the state.
The students spoke to our reporter at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral confessed about their recruitment by a government official in the state for the purposes of becoming their “hit men” in the coming days as activities heralding the elections unfold.
Trumpeta however gathered that the initial alarm raised by opposition elements in the state that the ICAPS is a training ground for pro-government militia troops may have element of truth following the involvement of operatives of the state-owned Imo Security Network, ISN, and Imo Community Watch (ICM) in government activities. The two ICAPS-trained security outfits, according to opposition camps in the state not only provided security to government officials during fisticuffs with others, but also fought on the side of rescue mission at the Catholic debate ground.
Spokesman of Emeka Ihedioha campaign outfit Bar Enyinna Onuegbu alleged that the gun-totting ISN provided cover for the APC women, he accused attacking other women at the venue.
With APC accused of having the support of pro-government security outfits and their kingpins recruiting suspected cult members for the 2015 election, other parties like PDP and APGA are not to be left out in the search for party thugs to match APC power-for-power, thugs-for-thugs.
The Catholic Church debacle is said to be child’s play and dress rehearsal of what to expect on March 28 and April 11, 2015 when the Presidential/National Assembly and Governorship/State Assembly elections hold respectively.
