By Ayo Yusuf
The recent endorsement of the Imo State governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Hope Odidika Uzodinma for the November 11 gubernatorial election, by the elders will not stop him from losing the election, Labour Party candidate for the election, Senator Athan Achonu has warned.
Senator Achonu described the endorsement of the governor by elders from the Imo West Senatorial Zone as a gimmick based on “selfishness and deceit.”
The candidate who said these old men were either motivated by hunger or fear, described the four-year tenure of Uzodinma who came to office in 2020 via a Supreme Court judgment as an “ill wind that blows nobody no good.”
Speaking to newsmen in Owerri Tuesday, through the Director General of his campaign, Chime Nzeribe, Senator Achonu said soon after Uzodinma became Imo governor, “the skies in Orlu turned black, signaling impending disaster, and today Orlu is witnessing a pogrom reminiscent of the Nigeria/ Biafra War pogrom.”
The LP gubernatorial candidate said the elders were stingy with the truth and did not want Governor Uzodinma, to be aware of the level of damage he had done.
According to him, “The attention of the Senator Athan Achonu Campaign Organisation has been drawn to a communique issued at the end of an ‘arranged’ “Historic Orlu Zonal Unity and Development Summit Held on 26 August 2023 in Owerri Nkworji and signed by HRH Eze C. I Ilomuanya and Engr. Greg Madu in which the summit “acknowledged that the emergence of His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodinma, CON, as the governor of Imo State in January 2020, is a divine gift to Orlu Zone, and therefore the best thing to happen to Orlu Zone.
“By this selfish endorsement of Governor Hope Uzodimma for another four years, these Orlu elders are making the same mistake the Egyptian and Philistine leaders made when they (Egyptians) stubbornly refused to let Israelites leave their domain, and in the case of the Philistines when they held on to the ark of covenant. Both suffered afflictions never known in their lands.
“Bluntly put, Uzodimma’s governorship remains an ill wind that blows no good. Not to Ndi Orlu and not to Imo generally. Immediately he took over the skies in Orlu turned black, signaling impending disaster, and today Orlu is witnessing a pogrom reminiscent of the Nigeria/ Biafra War pogrom.
“This latest failed gimmick of the so-called Orlu elders is a great disservice to the good people of Orlu. It is akin to endorsing the continued slavery, killing, and dehumanization of the long-suffering people, especially in the Orsu area where it is an offense now for able-bodied youths to walk the streets. How can one claim to be seeking unity and peace in the zone without acknowledging the fact of the gruesome murder of traditional rulers and other sons and daughters of the Orlu zone in the period under review? Or, condemn the notorious Ebube Agu for the many alleged murders linked to them?
“Finally, everything about the elders’ communique is repugnant and smacks of selfishness. These elders were motivated by nothing but either of two things – hunger or fear. It is either that or they are afraid for their lives in a state where known opponents had been dispatched to the great beyond under questionable circumstances.”
Only last week Senator Achonu’s candidacy for the polls was endorsed by the 2023 Presidential candidate of bis party, former governor Peter Obi, who told Governor Hope Uzodimma to start preparing to vacate the government house ahead of November 11, 2023 governorship election in the state.
