Peace of the graveyard and cold war is pervading Imo State House of Assembly as the recent supposed Vote of Implicit Confidence passed on the Speaker; Rt Hon Ben Uwajumogu, is brewing mutual suspicion and altercations among the state lawmakers.
It could be recalled that in the wake of Uwajumogu’s absence during plenary sessions of the State Assembly and following reports that the number one lawmaker in the state elected under PDP platform is about loosing his position in the state legislature for decamping to APGA after he was elected Speaker, the members hurriedly passed vote to confidence for a record second time within a short period.
Even as all members present during the last day of sitting unanimously agreed to the vote of confidence on the Speaker, discordant tunes have continued to trail the Resolution. Apart from the divergent views that greeted the motion sponsored by the Member Representing Oru East, Barr Greg Okemili, when it was debated on the floor of House, a recent advertorial said to be the full text of last Tuesday’s Resolution carried in two Owerri-based tabloids has torn apart the members into different camps.
The advertised Resolution is causing problem in the Assembly as some of the Members disagreed on the text stating that it was in contrast to what was adopted by Members present during deliberations adding that it contradicts the reports of media houses in the state who disclosed a different version from what was advertised to the public. More so, what further irked the aggrieved state lawmakers was the inclusion of some vexatious statements that intends to indict the PDP party hierarchy in the state.
Irked by the text of the Resolution which was reported to be the handiwork of an aide to the Speaker considering the manner it was made public and advertised in the newspapers, some Members expressed reservations and disclosed that it was not a true reflection of what actually transpired on the floor of the house. The Members who are not against the Speaker or passage of Vote of Confidence on him noted that while some Members of APGA extraction tried in vain to evoke party sentiments reason however prevailed wondering why issue of PDP and the recent visit of the state leaders which some of them were part was condemned and included as part of the Resolution.
The lawmakers while condemning some sections and sentences included in the paid advertorial, disclosed that the motion was unanimously adopted as it did not condemn the PDP Members and leaders who recently paid a courtesy visit to Mr President.
According to the paid advertorial, the House in the controversial Resolution noted that PDP leaders “claimed that they have the authority of Mr President to direct INEC to declare vacant the Seat of Mr Speaker and other Members of the Imo State House of Assembly, for alleged defection from their party (a matter which is pending in the court of law)” and whereas enemies of Imo State and democracy have carried this campaign of calumny into Abuja, where anti-graft commission were misinformed into doubting the credibility of the legislature, a glory that was achieved via hard work and selfless service”
To further bring division and mutual suspicion, names of 18 members were joined as co-sponsors, an action that is causing panic and tension in the State Assembly following disclaimers and reports by some that they were not consulted before the motion of urgent importance was presented on the floor of House. Another paid advertorial by one of the affected Members attested to the fact that the names of those alleged to have co-sponsored the motion were imaginary names concocted by the Speaker’s aide to give the imaginary Resolution the needed backing for publication.
Most of those whose names were included as co-sponsors in the advertised Resolution are threatening fire and brimstone asking for a retraction of the said publication adding that the inclusion was done in bad faith and for selfish purposes. The Members however asked for the resignation of the Speaker’s aide said to be in charge of media whose acts are fanning the embers of discord likely to cause disunity among the members. The lawmakers not only frowned at the idea of publishing what was not agreed in the floor of the House but reeling out some names to the disadvantage of others who may be accused of working against the interest of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Speaker Uwajumogu is still battling to avoid INEC hammer which is inevitable. Imo Trumpeta had reported that Uwajumogu and two other decampee lawmakers are at the verge of loosing their positions for dumping their original party PDP, for APGA after their inauguration.
In apparent bid to escape this sanction, a visibly worried Uwajumogu abandoned his legislative duties in Owerri and relocated to Abuja for a whole week to avoid being disgraced out of office and the Assembly complex as his Deputy, Pharm Donatus Ozoemena presided affairs of the House.
Even as the court has not been able to give verdict on the matter which PDP went to court asking for proper punishment, INEC is reported to be carrying out the action since it is a constitutional matter as provided in the relevant laws of the land.
Our Abuja correspondent learnt that while INEC had concluded arrangements to serve Uwajumogu and other affected lawmakers the letter asking them to vacate office after the letter has been prepared for deliverance, the alarmed Speaker rushed to Abuja where he adopted all strategic measures to escape the hammer.
Despite the calls put across to his aides and loyalists who have been going about informing the public that he and Owelle Okorocha, the state Governor have “handled the matter to their favour”, the Speaker is still in soup seeking for a way to swim out of the murky waters of trouble.
Part of the measures adopted to escape the hammer was for Uwajumogu to get a letter from his ward signed by officers and members of the executive indicating that he is still a member of the PDP. His efforts met a brick wall as the Ward Chairman and Ihitte/Uboma LGA party Chairman refused to sign insisting that he dumped the party for APGA the day he emerged Speaker. The affected PDP officials had in a statement recalled how the Speaker is adopting unorthodox method to obtain the party’s membership and authentication as a PDP card carrying elected member of the House. When the effort failed, the Speaker allegedly hoodwinked some suspected non-PDP Members who claimed to be the party officials for endorsement.
Some of the persons who signed the advertorials published in some newspapers it was further gathered are deceased persons and fictions names without a trace in Umuihi ward and Ihitte Uboma PDP family.
Another tactics employed by the Speaker to escape INEC hammer was the motion of urgent importance on implicit confidence on Uwajumogu where the lawmakers insisted that their leader should not be crucified for dumping PDP for APGA as he is still part of the PDP family. This aspect of the resolution which was first email to media houses before the revised and controversial one that was advertised. Armed with the supposed PDP membership letter signed by yet to be identified persons and the House Resolution that he is still of PDP stock, Uwajumogu ambushed INEC officials in Abuja claiming that the letter asking him to vacate office and possible conduct of bye-election would be defective as he is still a member of the PDP family using the purported letter from his ward.
Imo Trumpeta learnt that to erase any doubt about his cross-carpeting, the Speaker has taken hold of the official record of the House on the day of inauguration called “verbatim” where the Uwajumogu reportedly dumped PDP for APGA, to ensure his decampment was not made public. The video records where he read out his resignation from a piece of paper and later kept it in his pocket have also been kept out of public reach so that it would not be used to prosecute him for defection.
Another “damage control measure” employed by Uwajumogu to avoid INEC sanction is the idea of bombarding the electoral body with notices and letters from non existent non government organizations and political groups sympathetic to his fight. Since the reported INEC letter to the decampee lawmakers gained momentum, all manner of groups have been issuing different type of notices and letters warning INEC and the commission’s Chairman, Attahiru Jega not to go ahead with the vacation order and avoid Imo politicians in Abuja. The bodies notably, Imo Future Group, and Imo Initiative, an off shoot of SLAAP Initiative, the brainchild of one of the Speaker’s aides in charge of media have woken up to issue press releases in support of Uwajumogu.
Apart from pleading that the Speaker is left off the hook, the groups continue to condemn and tarnish the image of some PDP Chieftains and political office holders for being responsible for the renewed woes of the Ihitte Uboma representative.
The groups’ letters have temporarily halted INEC from giving Uwajumogu the letter as it is conducting proper findings before the final hammer.
A source close to the Speaker revealed that “what is remaining for our boss to do is to fight with his life to avoid been sacked from the House. He just came back but at the weekend but has been restless. I wish the PDP people including your newspaper will leave the man alone to concentrate with his legislative duties and join Owelle to Rescue Imo people.
Meanwhile, there is tension and uneasy call in Ihitte Uboma as the embattled Speaker of Imo State House and his aides from the Ihitte Uboma axis lost in their effort to coerce the Umuihi ward Chairman of the PDP into accepting that the Speaker is still of the PDP.
The aides of the Speaker had Saturday convened a meeting of youths from Umuihi ward and told them how the PDP ward Chairman had made several efforts to dethrone Speaker Uwajumogu.
Angered by the rhetoric stories by the Speaker’s aides, the youths gathered to attack the ward Chairman.
It was at that point that the Chairman came to the meeting, where he exposed all that has been happening between him and his kinsman who is the Speaker.
He disclosed how Speaker Uwajumogu promised to give him twenty five million naira (N25m) to sign a letter that he is still a member of the PDP even when he Uwajumogu has not appeared in any PDP function since after his election.
Continuing, he said that the aides of Uwajumogu cajoled him to pick the money and arranged to take five million (N5m) from the said money which he rebuffed.
He made it clear that he has no personal problem with the Speaker except the fact that he wanted him to sign a false letter to the fact that he is in PDP and a member of the party.
Astonished at the revelations, the youths immediately turned their back at the Speakers aides and started hurling curses on them.
The youths numbering over two hundred hailed the Chairman for standing firm on his position on the matter which according to them is a state party matter and not that to be resolved in the ward. The action has thrown the relatively sleepy community into confusion with the issue dominating discussions in several quarters. Except reasons prevail and security agencies drafted in to avoid breakdown of law and order, Umuihi and indeed the entire Ihitte Uboma may be enveloped with crisis.
In another development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Imo state Chapter, yesterday, warned the Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu and Hon Acho Ihim, to desist from threatening the lives of properties of PDP officers in their ward, LGA and state respectively.
This warning was made by Okigwe Zonal PDP held at the party’s zonal office in Owerri.
The communiqué signed by Chief Dom Uzomeru and Dr Uche Anyanwu, reiterated that it is a notorious fact that Rt Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu and Hon Acho Ihim at the floor of the Imo State House of Assembly voluntarily decamped to All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and have never attended any meeting of PDP or had anything to do with the party at the Ward, LGA and the zone.
The communiqué reads in part “that for the avoidance of doubt, the party states categorically that in the event anything happening to any of its officers at both ward, LGA and state arising from the said threats to its members or officers, the party will employ the full wait of the law on them”.
More political “banana peels” came the way of the Speaker, Imo state of Assembly, as Orluzurumee youths, took a swipe at the Speaker, Imo state House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu,
The group in a statement signed by comrade precious Nwadike (National president) and comrade Kyrian Echerebo (National secretary ), cautioned the speaker to leave senator Hope Uzodinma alone and stop blaming him for his (Uwajumogu) for his present political ordeal.
The group apparently reacting to a publication in an Owerri based tabloid, said senator Uzodinma should not be fingered for whatever reason as the architect of the speaker’s continued misfortune.
Part of the statement made available by Imo Trumpta reads” we would have ignored the said publication considering the fact that it emanated from one of the associates of the speaker who choose to hide in the name of Imo Initiative to cast aspersions on our revered senator. One wonders if our distinguished senator Hope Uzodinma has suddenly become the PDP Chairman or the APGA Chairman that he refused to re-admit Rt Hon Ben Uwajumogu to either PDP or APGA now that he is confused of the party he belongs. His associate should have reminded him of that instead of pointing accusing fingers at our senator”
The statement continued “As the apex youth organization in Orlu Zone, we would simply advise the speaker to stand before a mirror to see if he can actually find any image and if he finds, he should consider that image as his problem”
The group cautioned the Speaker to cease speaking from both sides of the mouth, urging the speaker to boldly step forward and say for the last time, the political party he belongs to.
“We hereby warn the faceless group to forthwith stop the attack on our distinguished senator (Hope Uzodinma) who is neither from Ihitte Uboma LGA or the speaker’s ward as any further attempt to europe our senator who is busy with his legislative duty will attract the wrath of our Assembly” the group warned.
