Imo Politics: Untold Story of Senator Onyewuchi’s Defection

By Enyinnanya Ubochi, Owerri

On the floor of the Senate, Tuesday, July 22nd, 2024, Senators of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC were visibly elated as Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi, representing Owerri zone ( Imo East Senatorial District) on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, switched parties and announced his defection to the APC.

In the presence of Imo state Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who came to witness the defection, Senator Onyewuchi told his colleagues that he decided to turn coat as a result of the crisis plaguing his former party. While APC Senators applauded and back slapped, they probably didnt know that their new catch was not telling them the whole truth about his defection.

Senator Onyewuchi, for example, didn’t tell his colleagues that his defection was conditioned by the dynamics of Imo politics. He didnt tell them that realignment of political forces preparatory to the next Imo Gubernatorial election was at the heart of his abandonment of LP for APC.

He didn’t also disclose to his fellow Senators that  former Governor Emeka Ihedioha’s impending announcement of his membership of the LP also played a huge role in his exit from the party.

Governor Uzodinma, the third democratically elected Governor to be produced by Orlu zone( Imo West Senatorial district) since the return of democracy in 1999 has consistently spoken about his commitment to ensuring that his successor emerge from Owerri zone and this magazine has been informed by multiple sources that Senator Onyewuchi’s defection fits into the Governor’s desire for an Owerri successor.

The Senator, it was further learnt, is being positioned by the Governor as his likely successor to pull the rug off the feets of former Governor Ihedioha and the National Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Sam Anyanwu(he represented Imo East in the Senate) who are already consulting and strategizing for the next Imo guber contest.

Originally a PDP Senator, Onyewuchi was one of the beneficiaries of the Peter Obi effect in the 2023 elections as he effortlessly returned to the Senate on the platform of LP having been denied the PDP return ticket following the total take over of the party’s structures in Imo state by Senator Anyanwu who would later contest and lost the November 2023 guber election in the state.

Former Governor Ihedioha who was also schemed out of the Imo PDP structures by Senator Anyanwu has since left the party but is yet to officially announce his defection to the LP. Ihedioha is reportedly oiling his political machinery to stage a return to office on the platform of the LP, his tenure having been cut short by the Supreme judgement of January 14th, 2020 which enthroned Governor Uzodinma. Governor Uzodinma,The Source was informed, is convinced that Senator Onyewuchi, contesting on the APC ticket and aided by the power of party incumbency and Federal might, will easily overwhelm the duo of Ihedioha and Senator Anyanwu and emerge victorious.

“Politics is about calculations and correctly reading the barometer and I can tell you that His Excellency, Governor Uzodinma, being a master strategist in the game of politics, has correctly read the barometer of Imo politics.

“What is looming is an all-Owerri zone gubernatorial contest- remember that the two major likely gladiators in the next Imo election- Senator Anyanwu and former Governor Ihedioha- are both from Owerri zone, and so, APC fielding a candidate from the same zons who had variously been a member of PDP and LP means that the votes of both parties will be divided in favour of the APC candidate”,  a Chieftain of Imo APC and loyalist of the Governor Uzodinma who preferred anonymity told the Magazine.

Further making a permutation of how Imo’s next governorship election could pan out, he said: “In the same vein, Ihedioha and Anyanwu will practically be contesting against each other because supporters of both parties are PDP members as LP lacks structures and independent support base in Imo.

“What this means is that while the APC will have its votes intact, PDP and LP will have their votes which ought to be a single chunk of vote split between them”

Meanwhile, the camp of Senator Anyanwu has dismissed the notion that the PDP candidate in the November 2023 gubernatorial election is already preparing for the next election.

Said a member of his campaign team: “For your information, Sam Daddy( as Senator Anyanwu’s supporters and admirers affectionately call him) won last November’s election but was brutally rigged out by the APC and its rigging machine. We are in court to reclaim our mandate and we are convinced we shall prevail.We cannot therefore, be talking of the next election when we are on the verge of reclaiming our mandate”