Okigwe re-run elections: Okorocha warns against thuggery, rigging

On Saturday, July 23, 2016 the people of Okigwe zone will be voting to elect their Senator, while the people of Oru-East and Isiala Mbano state constituencies will be voting to elect their representatives into the state House of Assembly in the re-run election to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It will be recalled that the Appeal court cancelled the previous Senatorial election held last year in Okigwe zone as well as that of Oru-East and Isiala Mbano state constituencies hence the need for INEC to re-conduct the elections.

Against the backdrop of this electoral development, the state Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha, as a matter of responsibility and unbridled concern wishes to appeal to the people of the state in general and people of Okigwe Zone and the two State Constituencies in particular to ensure peace and also display avowed patriotism.

Already, the state governor has, to a very large extent, charged the superintending agency, INEC and all the security agencies deployed for the election to ensure the security of lives and property, and to also ensure free and fair election.

What this action portends is that there will be no room for thuggery and there will be no room for rigging. These Imo vices will be grossly resisted, and anybody caught doing any of them will have himself or herself to blame. A word is enough for the wise.

Parents are therefore advised to guard against their children or wards being recruited to work as thugs, because anyone caught in that act will live to regret it. The people’s votes in these re-run polls must count. Both thuggery and rigging have become outfashioned and they would not be allowed to surface in the Saturday’s election.

The compound interest of the governor in the whole exercise is to ensure that those elected by their people at the polling units or through the ballot boxes will be declared winners. This is not negotiable. What is worth doing is worth doing fine.

The traditional politicians or political leaders who have so much believed in thuggery and rigging as the only ways to win election over the years should better drop the idea because they will never be allowed to do that. One wishes they take this candid advice.

And owing to the importance the government attaches to the re-run – election, Friday, July 22, 2016 has been declared work-free day to enable indigenes from the affected areas to go and exercise their franchise and elect those who would represent them.

The governor prays that God would continue to bless the state and her people and has also urged all those who will vote on Saturday not to let patriotic citizens of the state down.

Meanwhile, the support base of the APC candidate in the rescheduled election, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, seems to have swollen across social strata and political party lines.

This time, notable Igbo leaders across political and religious dividends have called on the good people of Okigwe zone to ensure the emergence of the former Imo Assembly Speaker to further enhance the propagation of the Igbo cause.

Some of the leaders who bared their minds at the sidelines of the unity meeting of Igbo leaders which took place at the Imo International Convention Centre, IICC, Owerri, described the forthcoming rescheduled election in Okigwe zone as very strategic to the welfare of Ndigbo in the present political dispensation in the country.

One of them, Chief Azuka Okwuolisa, regretted that Ndigbo had remained behind the driver's seat in the political equations of the country since the present administration came on board, owing to what he called "our myopic mistake" during the 2015 general elections.

According to him, "Our people must know that power is taken and not given. We must acknowledge the fact that we made a myopic mistake. As such, we must do everything within our powers to right the wrongs of yesterday to relaunch our political will back to the epicenter of governance in this country".

He noted that the lot seems to have fallen on the shoulders of the Okigwe people to redeem Ndigbo in its current political quagmire.

Chief Okwuolisa, enjoined the people of Okigwe zone to shun political party sentiments and vote for the total emancipation of the South east in view of the country's political stance by overwhelmingly queuing behind the APC candidate, whom he said possesses the will to fight for his people.

In a related development, the council of Traditional rulers in Okigwe zone, have thrown their weight behind the candidature of the former Imo Assembly Speaker in the July 23 rescheduled polls.

Chairman of the council and the paramount ruler of Ihim autonomous community, HRM Eze Matthew Oweni, who dropped this hint in an interview with Journalists, described Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, as the true son of Okigwe zone who has paid his dues for the positive advancement of the area.

He added that the council of Traditional rulers of the zone, after painstaking observations of the two leading candidates in the rescheduled polls, endorsed the APC candidate for his pragmatic approach exhibited in tackling the multifarious challenges confronting his people.

Eze Oweni, who conveyed the resolutions of the royal fathers in Okigwe zone, urged the PDP candidate in the re-run to show understanding and patriotism for the cause of Ndi-Okigwe by supporting his brother (Uwajumogu) in other to move not only Okigwe zone forward but Imo state in general.

He however called on the people of the zone to respect the wise decisions of the royal fathers and rally-round the APC candidate in his quest to better the lots of his people.