One of the post election crisis likely to bring cracks in the fold of Imo State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress, APC, is the issue of who becomes the speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly.
There has been uneasy calm and mutual suspicious in the APC family since the party won the governorship position and majority of seats in the state Assembly more than the rival PDP.
It is expected that the status quo that saw Okigwe zone produce the Speaker in the person of Rt Hon Ben Uwajumogu (Ihitte Uboma) in the present dispensation will continue from early next month when the new House will be inaugurated.
In view of the above, chieftains of the party and stakeholders are at daggers-drum over who becomes Uwajumogu’s successor in the coming House.
Trumpeta was informed that three frontline contenders from the various constituencies in Okigwe zone have become source of new altercations in Imo APC. Supporters of Acho Ihim (Okigwe) and his new members-elect, Uche Ejiogu and Chinedu Offor (of Ihitte Uboma and Onuimo) respectively are not only involved in necessary horse-trading but also at each others throat to grab the plum post.
The raging war is said to have been heightened following revelations that the Chief executive of the state is favourably disposed to having one of his aides turned lawmaker, Chinedu Offor emerge the Speaker. The Governor who demonstrated this allegation when he asked the member-elect for Onuimo to do the vote of thanks during the handing over of INEC Certificate of Return to the governor, Deputy Governor and House of Assembly winners in the state. Okorocha was accused of indirectly plotting to install his former commissioner and Deputy Chief of Staff, Offor against the wish of APC bigwigs disposed to Acho Ihim, while the governor’s wife Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha wants to make a statement of her gender struggle by backing Uche Ejiogu, a woman.
The divergent interests over which group produces the next speaker is causing serious disaffection in Okorocha political family with ripple effects extending to the entire APC hierarchy in the state. To knock Ihim favoured to grab the ticket because of his ranking status as a two-timer ahead of other, Trumpeta learnt that loyalists of the governor in the outgoing House have surreptitiously rubbished the ranking status to favour Offor.
Peace of the graveyard is reigning in Imo APC with members not willing to discuss the matter in the open to avoid clash of interest. APC stalwarts are said not to be comfortable with the governor’s style of winner-takes-all brand of politics, where he would decide what happens as a governor.
A large chunk of APC members from Okigwe are said not to be comfortable with Offor, seen as Governor’s puppet as the Assembly may turn to Government House annex considering that Okorocha’s office has been the abode of the Onuimo new House member-elect.
