– Aspirants Cluster, Lobby Gov’s Relatives
-Why Governor May Drop Some Names
There is an ominions veil of confusion in the All Progressive Congress APC, Imo State chapter as a result of the absence of an official list of successful candidates few days to the September, 21 date of the Local Government election.
The most disturbing aspect of the entire episode is that some of those who were previously told that their names are in the list of successful candidates for the election have not been officially communicated.
An insider source who spoke to Nigeria Watchdog Newspaper on the condition of anonymity said, the Governor had harmonized the list with one of the commissioners who is also his kinsman (name withheld).
“The Governor is also said to have given a directive that the party should conduct a sham congress where all those people whose names had been penciled down would emerge as having been elected by their constituents.
It was gathered that the Governor had personally harmonized the list with one of his commissioners who is also his kinsman (name withheld and warned that the list should be kept a secret. But the Commissioner, who is said to be one of the Governor’s foot soldiers when he was a Senator, on coming back to the state from Abuja, started reaching out to some of those whose names are on the harmonized list.
“Hence, some of them who were hand picked, out of excitement and uncontrolled euphoria also reached out to their supporters to announce their emergence. While the primary and its process were still on. They started rejoicing and celebrating thereby raising suspicion and anxiety that heat up the polity and aroused the attention of stakeholders who started calling frantically. This prompted the Governor to once again instruct that the list be kept secret and pending until he comes back from his trip”.
The source also hinted that, presently, the Governor’s relatives, particularly Uche Uzodinma, his elder sister, Adaji and others are using the opportunity to milk some of the desperate aspirants dry. In the same vein, the Commissioner for Rural Development, Ifeanyi Oruh who is said the arrow head of the extortion syndicate is acting like a clearing house at the expense of the aspirants who are allegedly parting with huge sums of money.
