When accounts of how the battle for the governorship ticket of Imo State chapter of APC shall be written, one name that would deserve a space is that of Prince Eze Madumere.
Since ever the Deputy Governor ditched the governor and his Rescue Mission team to pitch tent with the opposing group, the number two citizen has remained steadfast in the plot to stop Chief Uche Nwosu become Okorocha’s successor.
Trumpeta notes that Madumere and Okorocha alongside Nwosu belong to same Rescue Mission political family before things turned awry when programmes for next year’s election commenced.
The frosty relationship may not be unconnected to the decision of Okorocha not to consider any of his lieutenants as successor other than his son in-law, Nwosu.
Madumere’s angst against the governor started when time for sharing of political offices for 2019 began. According to Trumpeta findings, Okorocha allocated the Owerri zone Senate APC ticket to the Deputy Governor which he rejected and went further to throw away the traditional nuffler trademark of Rescue Mission adherents.
Apart from fighting on the side of the Coalition to bar the governor have firm control of the APC structure in Imo, Madumere called Okorocha’s bluff and run for the APC governorship ticket race against the adopted son in-law. Despite a planned democratic assault via impeachment processes initialed against him through the House of Assembly, the Deputy Governor braced the odds to buy form and stand for the primaries.
At the end, Madumere was among the Coalition aspirants who gathered in Abuja to endorse the result of the Ahmed Gulak led Electoral Committee that declared Senator Hope Uzodinma winner. The group later wrote the APC National Working Committee of their resolve not to take part in any rescheduled primaries on the basis that Uzodinma won the October 1st exercise.
Madumere didn’t rest on the quest to stop Nwosu as he approached the Owerri High Court to stop the purported October 6 primaries conducted by another committee, Nwosu had been claiming guaranteed him victory as the ticket holder. According to details of the court processes, Nwosu suffered another humiliation from Madumere when the presiding Judge, Justice K.A Ojiako nullified the purported primary election of October 6, 2018.
The court had granted all the prayers sought by Madumere which asked that on the October 1, 2018 APC primary election and the contestants be declared as the only relevant and valid primary electionary process, through which Senator Hope Uzodinma emerged winner.
The judgment was based on the order granted by Abuja High Court restraing the party from conducting any fresh primary elections until the determination before it over the October 1, 2018 primary election. Therefore, the defense of the Agbakabia led committee was only an effort in futility if not an affront to the extant laws guiding court process.
Madumere’s case for the recognition of the October 1, 2018 APC Guber primaries, which the High Court upheld rubbished Nwosu’s claims of the ticket by virtue of the purported conduct of the October 6, Agbabiaka led primaries. The judgment obtained by the Deputy Governor put to rest Okorocha’s son in-law disposition thereby solidifying Uzodinma’s candidacy of the party.
