Posted by By Chidi Nkwopara on
SPIRITED efforts by the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to find a credible leadership for the seat vacated by late Senator Amah Iwuagwu may hit the rocks, according to indications in Owerri.
OWERRI - SPIRITED efforts by the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to find a credible leadership for the seat vacated by late Senator Amah Iwuagwu may hit the rocks, according to indications in Owerri.
Political leaders in Owerri Municipal, Owerri North, Ngor Okpala and Owerri West local government areas appear insistent that it would amount to sheer injustice to move the seat to areas that had already represented the senatorial zone in the past dispensations. Chief Amaugo Ugorji, an architect, had at a recent press conference in Owerri, lamented the way the local council areas in Owerri federal constituency had been steadily denied the senatorial seat.
"When the ministerial position was in core Owerri, the senatorial seat was in Mbaitoli Ikeduru (Mbaike). When the ministerial position was in Mbaise, the senatorial seat was in Mbaike. Now that the senatorial seat is vacant and the ministerial seat has gone to Mbaike, equity demands that the senatorial seat should now go to core Owerri or Mbaise", Ugorji reasoned.
He however argued, "Since Mbaise has represented the zone thrice in the Senate, the position should now be allowed to go to core Owerri that has never been to the Senate." The story looked slightly different in Mbaitoli and Ikeduru local government areas, where PDP loyalists returned to the old rival political blocks of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Chief Evan Enwerem.
Strong feelers from the two separate meetings held in the homes of the two political kingpins over the weekend, revealed that while the loyalists of Chief Enwerem gave him the mandate to re-contest for the seat, the Chief Iwuanyanwu block opted to allow Mbaitoli local council area to produce Iwuagwu's replacement. One of the prominent Ikeduru sons at the meeting, Dr. Charles Emeka Anokwa, explained that what informed their support for Enwerem is that he has already mastered the intrigues in the National Assembly, adding that before a new entrant gets acquainted with the procedures of the upper chamber, the remaining one and a half years would have elapsed.
The Iwuanyanwu group, which cuts across all the registered political parties operating in the state, re-enacted what they termed "the common ties between the two councils", instantly resolved that Amah Iwuagwu's kinsmen should replace him. Chief Donatus Agogbue argued that it would only be fair to allow people from Amah Iwuagwu's area to complete the late man's tenure, especially as Ikeduru has had its own share in Chief Enwerem's tenure.
"Since Ikeduru is presently occupying the House of Representatives, in addition to producing the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly and member of the PDP Board of Trustees, it would be fair to allow Mbaitoli to go to the Senate", Agogbue told his kinsmen. Speaking also, Chief Marcon Nlemigbo called for generational change and appealed to Ikeduru people to leave the vacant seat for Mbaitoli people.