By Onyekachi Eze
The ripples associated with President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Imo State on September 9, 2021 have continued to eat deep into the structure of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC in the State.
Aside having effect on the party, it has also descended on the party chieftains of Imo State extraction under APC.
After Buhari’s visit, Trumpeta newspaper learnt the visit is beginning to open fresh concerns between the two factions piloted by two heavyweights.
While Governor Hope Uzodinma succeeded in attracting the Nigerian’s number one citizen to Imo to commission some projects executed by his administration, some APC chieftains in the likes of former two term Governor of the State and current Senator for Imo West, Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Araraume and others under Okorocha’s camp were conspicuously missing in action.
Few days after Buhari left Owerri, Okorocha in company of his son and few of his aides paid a visit to President Buhari in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
This newspaper gathered that while Uzodinma and his loyalists were yet to come out from the shock of Okorocha’s visit to Buhari, they were hit in their bone marrows by the appointment of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as the chairman of yet to be established Nigeria National Petroleum Commission Company.
In a letter signed by the President’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina on Sunday, September 19,2021, Buhari appointed Araraume the Board Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC).
Araraume’s inclusion and eventual recognition by the Presidency is said to have rattled the Imo Governor who was reported to have judged both Okorocha, Araraume and their supporters of the Rescue Mission as repeating from they did not sow.
It would also be recalled that the aforementioned in the Rescue Mission line-up were reportedly not involved in the just concluded APC membership and revalidation exercise.
As if that was not enough, on the President’s visit, Okorocha was quoted through his media aide to not to have been informed and invited by Imo Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
From Okorocha’s brief, he recalled that if the Imo Governor had extended invitation to him, he would have gladly come out to welcome the President alongside the likes of Senator Araraume, Uche Nwosu and other top APC members.
For the umpteenth time, Senator Okorocha had maintained of not leaving the APC party which he claimed he berthed and nurtured to what it is today in Imo State and entire South East.
Indications are rife that the President Buhari may have gone back to Aso RockVilla in Abuja and x-rayed the type of reception he received in Imo State and also the faces that greeted his welcome.
The President may have a first situation in Imo APC that Uzodinma alone call on move the party forward, as the number of persons who came to welcome him was an embarrassment.
It was further stated that why the President hosted Okorocha in his Aso Rock Villa may not be unconnected to the grievance perceived to be rocking the Imo APC chapter, and hence, he had to appoint the two term Senator of Imo North into the high profiled Board as Chairman.
