Except some members elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and part of the incoming Imo State House of Assembly, devise a means to detonate landmines laid for them ahead next week’s inauguration of the state legislature, their numerous supporters and party men may be disappointed on the day of the event.
Reason being that a grand design has been perfected by the leading party, the All Progressive Congress, APC to ensure that it frustrates the few elected PDP members in the incoming state legislature.
Part of the plot according to reliable assembly sources is for the Clerk of the House, who is the chief administrator to act in concert with the APC to ensure that few of the PDP members-elect who did not receive their certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Owerri office are not accredited to join others for inauguration.
It would be recalled that a major setback was recorded for some members-elect when they could not receive their INEC certificates of Return in Owerri.
However, two PDP members, Emmanuel Orie and Obinna Egu representing Ohaji/Egbema and Ngor Okpala State constituencies respectively were among those who could not get their certificates, even as INEC officials affirmed that those whose names were omitted were real winners and would be issued with the clearance certificate necessary for acceptance into the hallowed chamber of the Imo State House of Assembly. Both Orie and Egu however got the certificate of Return in INEC office, Abuja.
Trumpeta learnt that despite explanations from the INEC officials in Owerri that the omission was as a result of error and inability of the staff to meet up with their submission for the certificate, the omission however sent joy to the camp of APC candidates and members in the two LGAs.
Based on the foregoing, the APC candidates in Hon Luke Chukwu and Emeka Nwofor were said to have informed their supporters to remain calm claiming that the omission is good news as process is underway for them to gain the mandate as the perceived winners of the PDP stock have not been issued with the C of R and will not be inaugurated like other members-elect.
With the duo obtaining their C of R in Abuja, Trumpeta gathered that the candidates who lost and have gone to the election petition tribunal to seek redress have also changed tactics to that effect.
The new formula employed by the state arm of APC is by using the Clerk of the House to put on hold the recognition of their Certificates of Return obtained in Abuja .
Our reporter monitoring events at the State Assembly was also reliably informed that pressure has been on the Clerk of the House to stand down the recognition of the PDP members who collected their C of R in Abuja INEC office instead of Owerri.
A chieftain of the APC who pleaded anonymity told Trumpeta that “we are on the matter. We have asked the Clerk not to recognize the two PDP persons because their Certificates of Return were obtained in Abuja instead of Owerri, where others got theirs. For us, the source and how they got it is still subject of verification. We are not going to accept it because it can be fake C of R or an illegal one obtained from fake authority. So, the clerk should not accept it as a working document to accept them in the State Assembly”.
With the APC in charge of the state and at the national level and Governor Rochas Okorocha asserting intensive pressure on top civil servants in the state including the Clerk, a bleak future is underway for the PDP members-elect.
