*OBOWO PDP: CAMPAIGN DG DISOWNS UGO EMERENINI*
Chief Domnic Ikejiaku, Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Imo State House of Assembly seat in Obowo in the last election, Mr. Ugochukwu Emerenini, has described the PDP candidate as “an unserious politician, who never planned to win election for the PDP. He said that working for Emerenini “was a sordid and unfortunate experience as Emerenini should blame himself rather than seeking whom to transfer his foreseen failure upon”.
The obviously bitter Chief Ikejiaku spoke on the heels of media reports credited Emerenini that the apex political leader of Obowo and former Secretary to Imo State Government (SGI), Chief (Barr.) Chris Okewulonu abandoned and never assisted him (Emerenini) to win the election. Countering such wrong assertion, Ikejiaku, said that in Okigwe Zone, Chief Okewulonu is highly honoured and respected. He posited that all PDP candidates particularly those for Senate, Okigwe South Federal Constituency and Emerenini himself, benefitted immensely from Chief Okewulonu’s goodwill and financial support.
According to him, Chief Okewulonu did everything to ensure that Emerenini wins “but Emerenin’s lackadaisical approach to campaign programmes caused him to fail”. He said that “at a point, Chief Okewulonu summoned a meeting of elders from Emerenini’s immediate community and advised them to ask him to be serious as the complaints against his unserious attitude to campaign kept coming in everyday, Emerenini rebuffed all the elders and they abandoned him in annoyance”.
The Director General regretted that even the campaign programmes drawn-up for Emerenini were rejected by him. “He quarreled with party leaders, everybody was bitter with him. At a point, I wanted to resign because nothing was happening. He never worked hard. He ran the campaign himself by attending uninvited burial ceremonies and church services, which to him, were what mattered most. There was no ward rallies, no sensitization visits to traditional rulers, youth groups or market women. The whole thing was bizarre”, the DG stated.
He maintained that given the circumstances then, there was no way Emerenini could have won that election. He must blame himself for his electoral misfortune as he lacked the charisma and aura to carry the voters along.
Chief Ikejiaku, a retired Director in the Public Service, described Chief Okewulonu as “the life wire of PDP in Obowo and Okigwe Zone. He funded the Party during the eight years PDP was out of power. I even joined PDP because of his inspirational leadership style. I am therefore, dissociating myself from the media reports against Chief Okewulonu which were credited to Emerenini. He is entirely on his own as his accusations against our apex political leader, Chief Chris Okewulonu, are frivolous and baseless. He was never serious”.
