A former Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly and a native of Obowo Local Government Area, Hon Bar Ike C Ibe has joined the race for Imo Governorship seat in 2015.
Ibe made this declaration in Owerri while addressing Journalists, pointing out that he is not only in the race, but has joined the fray to clinch the sole ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and occupy the Douglas House after the election proper.
Describing himself as a philanthropist and grassroot politician who knows where the shoe pinches Imo electorate, the American trained legal luminary disclosed that he is in politics not to accumulate wealth but to serve mankind by providing dividends of democracy that will make life better for the masses. Ike Ibe who lost his wife Nancy and daughter Jennifer in the ill-fated Dana Air ways plan crash in 2012 said that all he owes them is to continue to work for the betterment of the society since they paid the supreme price for Nigeria to get better.
The former lawmaker said that he does not subscribe to zoning of Imo Governorship seat, as according to him it has negative connotations that will make whoever emerges Governor see himself as a Governor of a section of the state.
“I don’t subscribe to zoning as it has negative connotations. We should look for a Governor who sees the entire Imo state as his zone”, he said.
Ike Ibe appealed to the PDP to throw her doors open for all members seeking to be governor, and maintain a free and fair policy that will produce the best Aspirant as the Governorship candidate of the party.
The guber hopeful said that what leads people to abandon their political parties after primaries is if the exercise was not conducted under a level playing ground and transparent, adding that no Aspirant will leave the party, as they would have witnessed the transparent nature of the exercise.
He said that while he would not criticize the incumbent Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, he however is sure that Okorocha has done his best, which was not good enough for Imo people, and promised to raise the bar of good governance if given the mandate by his party PDP and the Imo electorate in 2015.
