Even as the 2013 Anambra Governorship election has been concluded with aggrieved contestants and parties threatening to go to court to challenge the election process which APGA candidate Willie Obiano has won.
While my initial write up did not have enough space to truly reflect on the multiplier effects of the Anambra election as it dealt more on preambles and build up to the election, I will in this week’s edition present a likely scenario that may characterize 2015 elections in Imo.
Apart from the affinity and border relationship Anambra shares with neighbouring Imo State, the Governor of Imo State was no doubt an interested factor in who succeeds Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State.
Imolites will not forget in a hurry that Okorocha who may have the penchant for tasting life in different political parties having sought for elective offices in PDP, ANPP, and AA, however succeeded in becoming Governor using APGA platform in 2011. Midway into his regime, Okorocha dumped APGA for APC after describing it as a mere cultural organization lacking the necessary platform to further the course of Ndigbo in national politics.
As the Anambra 2013 Guber approached, Okorocha made stringent efforts to advance the course of his APC in the South East using the election as a test case.
Despite the controversy and alleged incompetence on the part of INEC over the conduct of the polls in Anambra, the exercise may likely be another dress rehearsal for 2015 general election in Imo.
The utter rejection of APC as manifested by pattern of voting in Anambra Guber election is an ominous sign to the party’s survival in the South East. The poor showing of APC in the election may have shocked Governor Okorocha as he is yet to make official comment on the election preferring to adopt philosophical calmness. Other APC Chieftains and stalwarts in Imo State shocked by the APC poor showing no doubt are alarmed by the warning signal. There is no doubt that Okorocha and cohorts would employ surviving strategies to market APC for 2015 election in Imo and the entire South East.
Borrowing what Archbishop Anthony Obinna of the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese said during his preaching to mark Sunday’s celebration of the feast of Christ the King (Corpus Christi) that the Anambra scenario speaks volume of what to expect in Imo in 2015 the next general election in Imo will undoubtably experience Anambra touches. The fiery cleric noted for his fearless expressions on socio-political issues and governance according to news reports lamented over the activities of political desperadoes who almost turned Anambra State to a war front over struggle for power. According to Archbishop Obinna, the Anambra theatre of absurdities and politicians penchant to cling to power always is not unlikely in Imo in 2015.
Archbishop Obinna may not only be a preacher of word of God but also a political analyst if his permutation on the 2015 Imo election is anything to go by.
The shepherd of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri could have also observed what transpired in Imo State days before the Anambra 2013 Guber, where Owerri, the state capital became the stop-gap for supporters of a particular party billed for the Anambra election. Apart from the last minute visit of Ngige, the APC candidate with all his coordinators to Government House, Owerri for crucial meetings with the APC stakeholder in Imo, all political appointees serving the present government were allegedly ordered to empty into Anambra for the elections. However, the police in Imo arrested about 181 suspected political thugs said to be loyal to APC in one of the hotels in Owerri. The suspects who have been dragged to court and enjoying bail reportedly came from Osun State and claimed to have entered Owerri for the purposes of training for the election as members of a named election monitoring group.
Indications that there could be hands of Esau in the infamous “Osun 181” was the involvement of some Imo State government functionaries in the debacle. While reports that some eggheads masterminded the entry of several APC supporters into the state few days to the election in neighouring Anambra State, two lawyers in Okorocha’s new cabinet, Soronnadi Njoku and Uche Onyeagocha were among the lawyers who sought for the release of the held suspects in court.
The invasion of suspected political thugs masquerading as election monitors is another sad reminder of sordid events that characterized the May 6, 2011 Supplementary Election, that brought Okorocha into power.
A day before the Supplementary election, suspected agents of a particular party invaded the areas mapped out for the election. Suspected thugs were shipped in large numbers. The suspected loyalists of a particular party were however handed fake INEC election observers’ tags and identity cards which served as a decoy. Since the practice succeeded in Imo during the Supplementary Election in 2011, and was again rehearsed for the Anambra election.
Undoubtedly, there would be a replica of importation of suspected political thugs into Imo State in 2015 as states like Anambra would not be having their governorship elections.
