The inauguration of Hilary Eke as the state chairman of Imo State APC has finally confirmed Governor Rochas Okorocha’s loss of party structure.
Eke, the re-elected chairman of the party was among the new party chairmen sworn in on Monday in Abuja by the party National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, on behalf of the NWC to carry in the functions of the party.
There has been a struggle for the soul of Imo APC between the governor and a section of the party leaders who constituted themselves as stakeholders to oppose Okorocha taking over the structure.
The battle for the soul of the party commenced in the early weeks of May when the ward congress was held.
In contrast to the expectation of the governor who had planned to carry the day, the coalition, operating as “Allied Forces” torpedoed him to have their acolytes and supporters emerge ward executives. An enraged Okorocha who made frantic efforts to get hold of the ward officials rushed to Daura to meet President Mohammed Buhari who was at home for the event, for rescue. He further met the Vice President and Security Chiefs in Abuja to reverse the exercise.
Instead, the ward results and outcome of the Appeal were submitted and acknowledge by the national secretariat of the party.
The second phase was the LGA congress which was also held amidst challenges from Okorocha and group despite the deliberate setting on fire of the state party secretariat in Owerri.
During the state congress, the Allied Forces outsmart the Okorocha group, who went to court to challenge the ward congresses held earlier. But the national had received the details of the LGA congress and went ahead to raise committee for the state congress which was held at Ehime Mbano LGA, following the fire outbreak at the party office and to beat the court involvement.
Trumpeta can state that despite desperate efforts of the governor and his followers to stop the recognition of congresses held in Imo, Eke was among the state party chairmen inaugurated. The official recognition has finally dusted challenges from Okorocha and authenticated Eke as the State Chairman alongside other State Excos elected with him.
This newspaper recalls that prior to the State Congress, the Okorocha camp has purportedly claimed to have sacked Ekeh and three other elected Exco members of party in the State.
The alleged suspension of Eke and Co comes to nothing if today’s inauguration is considered.
The implication is that the reported acting capacity giving to Chris Oguoma as State party chairman is an illegal act.
Oguoma was pronounced acting chairman when the Okorocha group claimed Eke and others have been suspended.
Meanwhile, the outgoing APC National Chairman, Oyegun has again taken a swipe at the governor for blaming him over his woes in the party in recent times.
Chief Odigie-Oyegun spoke tacitly at the weekend in Abuja on the protracted crisis in Imo APC while reacting to an allegation from Gov. Okorocha that he was facing a witch-hunt from the party leadership for opposing the tenure elongation move for the outgoing National Working Committee (NWC) members.
Okorocha had been having a running battle with the Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC after losing the control of the party’s structure in the state to his political rivals in the just concluded Ward, Local Government and State congresses.
The APC national chairman wondered why Okorocha would be targeted when he was the only person that opposed the move.
While responding to the allegation, Odigie-Oyegun said Okorocha “wasn’t the strongest force behind the objection to tenure elongation. So why is his case different? I don’t think it is necessary to go into the details.
“Well, the processes are still on and it is not good to answer you in detail. But the answer lies in one fact that he is not the only one who opposed the so-called tenure elongation, how come he is the only one being witch-hunted?
“When you look at the totality of the events in that state, I think you can get a clearer picture of what is going on there. There is a united voice calling for a different way of doing things so to speak,” Oyegun said.
