Imo: Ihedioha, Uche Nwosu, Ignite Political Realignment Talks At Funeral

By Charles Igbo

Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha, was a surprise face at the funeral of Mrs Jemimah Nwosu, mother of his arch Political rival and “enemy”, Uche Nwosu.

Ihedioha, declared winner of the 2019 Governorship Election by the Independent National Electoral  Commission, INEC, was the Governor of Imo State before the Supreme Court removed him in favour of the incumbent Senator Hope Uzodinma. Ihedioha’s administration lasted for seven months, only.

Nwosu, a son-in-law to former Governor Rochas Okorocha, in that election, was the Governorship candidate of the Action Alliance, AA, after Uzodinma picked the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, displacing him.

Nwosu and his father-in-law, Okorocha, had been political  enemies of Ihedioha for years. On being sworn-in as the Governor of the State, Ihedioha set up a number of Judicial Commissions and Panels to probe the activities of Okorocha in his eight year administration.

It is the implementation of the White Paper on the findings of the probe Panels, which Uzodinma refused to disband, that have stripped Okorocha of everything he reportedly illegally acquired in the State. The Okorocha group holds Ihedioha responsible for their principal’s sad fate.

Okorocha and Uzodinma, though in the same party, have a very sour relationship, just as he has with Ihedioha, or so everybody thought.

But in a classic case of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”, Okorocha and Ihedioha have allegedly been hobnobbing.

Speculations have been strong that both men and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, another APC  chieftain, unhappy that Uzodinma did not support him in his recent Senatorial ambition, have been meeting. They are said to be forming an alliance to confront Uzodinma in 2023. There have, also, been speculations that the Okorocha group, in particular, is poised to defect to the PDP, especially, as he, and his supporters, did not take part in the APC revalidation exercise. Okorocha and his group are completely out of the main stream APC in Imo State. In recent times too, Okorocha has been publicly hobnobbing with Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, unarguably, one of the most influential voices in the PDP.

However, according to political watchers, nothing has given teeth to a possible  political realignment in the State than the presence of Ihedioha at the funeral of Uche Nwosu’s mother. If that happens, it is a realignment nobody can comfortably ignore.

On arrival at the funeral in Nkwerre on Wednesday, December 22,  for the funeral, Ihedioha and Nwosu hugged, held hands forever, and was received with excitement by the crowd present. Present too, of course, was Okorocha, whose daughter, Uloma, is married to Nwosu.

There are speculations that  in 2023, Ihedioha and Nwosu could run on the same ticket under the PDP.

While that is still in the realms of speculations, the task before Ihedioha is to get the PDP Governorship ticket in 2023.