Ihedioha: We Have Already Won 2023 Imo Governorship

By Charles Igbo

Exhibiting an uncommon confidence, the immediate past Governor of Imo State, The Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, has assured his associates and supporters, that he would, again, be the Governor of Imo State.

Ihedioha spoke while addressing the 4th anniversary of “Egbu Declaration” which held at the premises of the All Saints Cathedral, Egbu, Owerri North on Saturday, November 13.

The Egbu Declaration is a congregation of Owerri people intent on having an Owerri indigene occupy the Governorship seat  of the State.

Since the creation of Imo State, no Owerri man has fully occupied the office. The first man who occupied it, the late Evan Enwerem, had his tenure cut short by the Military.

Ihedioha was the second, but again, he had his tenure cut short, after only seven months by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He contested under his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the 2019 Governorship election.

But on January 14, 2020, the Supreme Court removed him from office, and declared, as duly elected, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Hope Uzodimma.

All legal efforts to retrieve the mandate by both Ihedioha and the PDP fell flat. Since then, Ihedioha, the PDP and his supporters and associates have been bemoaning their fate. But from his speech on Saturday, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives has moved on. He has his eyes on the future well-focused.

Sounding very sure-footed while addressing the excited and cheering crowd, Ihedioha assured them that the next Imo Governorship election would be a shoe-in for him. “I am not here to campaign. It is done already.”

He said he did not disappoint the zone during his first outing and would never disappoint them. He said that those who aborted his tenure are suffering.  He said he was not distracted by anything as his eyes are on the ball – the Governorship seat of the State.

Ihedioha: “I am proud of Owerri zone. I love you and I will continue to love you. I will continue to serve you. I am not here to campaign because the campaign has been done already.

“When you made me your Governor, I did not disappoint you from the beginning to the final stages. These are challenging and tough times. They want to discourage us, but it will not happen.

“I will keep my eyes on the ball. We must keep our eyes on the ball. The ball is the Governorship of Imo State. My eyes will firmly remain on the Governorship of Imo State. We are already there.”

One of the highlights of the resolution at the anniversary summit is a resolve of unity to make sure an Owerri son occupies the Governorship seat come January 14, 2024. This, it was resolved to achieve in conjunction with brother-zones of Okigwe and Orlu.

Even though the anniversary Summit was well attended by people  from all works of life, some analysts have dismissed it as a PDP event.

Their questions and comments were:

“Where were Owerri people in the APC, for example? Or other parties? Did you see any of them there? Is Owerri zone made up of only PDP men and women?

“The names on the invitation card were those of PDP members only, or did you see any other names? Did you see any non-PDP member address the people? Did you hear any of their names?

“These people are inadvertently boxing the Zone into a corner. Everybody cannot be PDP. We hope the organisers know what they are doing.”

The Summit was meant to cut across political parties and religious beliefs.