By anthony anyanwu
Indications that the plan by the people of Oweri zone to produce the next governor of Imo state may likely witness hiccups have emerged with tension enveloping the area ahead desire of the stakeholders to shortlist the numerous aspirants for the purposes of producing a consensus candidate.
Apart from building anxiety, mutual suspicion and lack of confidence among some of the eggheads handling the agenda in some of the earmarked blocks, like Mbaike, may rock the boat and lead to a catastrophic outing.
Trumpeta was reliably informed that a notable business mogul (names withheld) sympathetic to the clamour for Charter of Equity which favours Owerri zone in 2015 reportedly boosted the surge during a classified meeting of Owerri leaders of thought at a quiet location of the state.
The high flyer industrialist poured out monetary logistics to boost a meeting of leaders/ stakeholders on federal constituency basis with a view to selecting one person each from the three blocs, namely, Owerri Federal Constituency, Mbaike and Aboh/Ngor Okpala and Ahiazu/Ezinihitte. Consequently, a team was raised for each of the four blocs to meet and harmonise their interests for the purpose of presenting a single candidate to the larger Owerri forum for consideration.
For Ahiazu and Ezinihitte the like of ageless politician Chief ID Nwoga, and a two-time lawmaker, of Imo House Hon Oliver Enwerem are said to be part of the team while veteran politician, Chief Ambrose Ejiogu is said to be leading that of Owerri federal constituency.
However, all is said not to be going well for the Mbaike bloc where the likes of former House of Assembly member who represented Mbaitoli, Hon Eugene Onyeji, Chief Vitalis Ogueri of Ikeduru, Dr Anokwa and Dr J.C Odunna are said to be part of.
Part of the mandate given to the groups was to go home, convene a meeting to access their aspirants with a view to coming out with acceptable consensus candidate.
While other are said to have commenced operations on the task, that of Mbaike seems to be dead on arrival with the group charged with the responsibility going comatose. The Mbaike group said to be spearheaded by Dr Odunna has remained inactive fuelling speculations that the team may lack the moral wisdom to undertake the assignment but also have something up their sleeves to execute when asked to produce their choice.
The style of the Mbaike team is not only causing disaffection but also raising suspicion that the top team leader of the select group is working for the interest of a particular candidate.
The refusal of the team to convene meeting and deliberate on the matter is likened to the suspect bias and favouritism that may characterize the final choice. What however heightened the suspicion is that of the named five governorship aspirants from the area using the PDP platform, like Barr Chuka Odom, Lady Edna Njoku, Rt Hon Bethel Amadi and Barr Humphrey Anumudu, one of the team members is sympathetic to the ambition of a named aspirant mentioned above. The revelation is causing bad blood culpable of disrupting the outcome of the exercise.
The situation has not gone down well among the Mbaike people who are already alleging favouritism over the composition of the committee. There is general feeling that since one of the aspirants has a backer serving in the committee, the rest desires a chance to avoid underhand plays.
