Senate leadership: Okorocha threatens to unseat Ekweremadu

Following the alleged early lead by the can­didate of the All Pro­gressive Congress (APC) Honourable Benjamin Uwa­jumogu in the ‘inconclusive’ Imo North rerun election held last Saturday, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has expressed confidence that the APC candidate will unseat the present deputy senate president, Ike Ekw­eremadu to ‘consumate’ the ruling party’s leadership of the National Assembly. Ek­weremadu is of the opposi­tion PDP.
Okorocha who stated this on Sunday while cel­ebrating, with other sup­porters of the party, the presumed lead of the APC candidate and his likely victory, also described the current pairing of APC’s Senator Bukola Saraki and PDP’s Ekweremadu as President and Deputy Senate President respec­tively as an ‘aberration to the South East’.

He said: “The position of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate president is at the moment under heavy threat because in no distant time the APC Senator-in-wait­ing from Imo State, Benjamin Uwajumogu will take over the seat on the ground that it is an aberration that a PDP senator from the South-East is depu­ty to an APC Senate President because, before now, APC could not produce a senator from the South-East zone.”
Governor Okorocha fur­ther alleged that Senator Ekw­eremadu has been jittery over the outcome of the election, hence the Deputy Senate Pres­ident’s alleged ‘undue’interest in the Imo North Senatorial rerun election in the state.
But, Ekweremadu’s of­fice has reacted to Okoro­cha’s statement, describing it as coming from a man on “a wild goose chase”.
In a statement issued by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Ekweremadu, Uchechuk­wu Anichukwu, the Depu­ty President of the Senate’s Office said it would have “al­lowed the governor to contin­ue to wallow in his delusions and wild claims, but, consid­ering the fact that this is the second consecutive statement by the governor in one week wherein he attempted to im­pugn the integrity and dem­ocratic credentials of the Of­fice and person of the Deputy President of the Senate, we are being compelled to set the re­cord straight.”
Continuing, Mr. Ani­chukwu said: “The Deputy President of the Senate visited Imo State for the last time in 2015. It is also instructive that the governor’s claim comes on the heels of another state­ment by some All Progressives Congress (APC) elements in Ezeagu Local Government Area on Sunday where they whined bitterly over the huge solidarity shown by the good people, stakeholders, and tra­ditional rulers of Enugu State to Senator Ekweremadu dur­ing his annual Ikeoha Schol­arship and Bursary Awards/Adult Literacy Day at the Council headquarters on the same Saturday, June 23, 2016.
“For the same party to also claim that the same Ekwere­madu who was empowering his people at Ezeagu in a well reported event on the same Saturday was also in in Imo State at the same time to in­fluence election is just another showcase of the buffet of lies, deceit, and confusion that has become the order of the day in the ruling party”.
He advised Governor Okorocha and other APC leaders in the South East zone to “preoccupy themselves with ending the invasions and kill­ings by purported herdsmen, gross marginalization of Ndig­bo in the distribution of op­portunities and the blessings of democracy as well as the worrisome trend of inconclu­sive elections”.
Mr. Anichukwu said Gov­ernor Okorocha’s statement also showed poor understand­ing of the workings of the leg­islature, noting that Ekwer­emadu was not perturbed in any way by the wishful pros­pects of an APC Senator of South East extraction.
“The Senate has a rank­ing rule, and if Okorocha was not able to secure a principal office, even Deputy Major­ity Whip for the two House of Representatives Members from Imo State, it is left to im­agination how he would be able to appoint a Deputy Pres­ident for the Senate. He is on a wild goose chase.”
Okorocha, however, insist­ed that APC in the South East and not PDP ought to produce the deputy senate president. Agonizing over the loss of the senatorial seats to the PDP in last year’s election, the Imo governor further declared: “All the National Assembly members from the state on the platform of PDP should be re-called to come and face proper election because none of them won election but they used their federal might and the security agencies to write results for themselves in the 2015 election. And now that sanity has been restored they should be made to come and face real election.”
The Imo State Chief Ex­ecutive also noted that it has become part of the political culture of the state that every election must be declared in­conclusive, adding that “there was no need for Saturday’s election to be declared incon­clusive because of one ward (Osuachara) out of the 64 wards in the Okigwe Senato­rial Zone with the APC can­didate, leading his rival with more than eight thousand votes.”
Meanwhile, INEC has fixed Thursday July 28, for a supplementary poll following the inconclusive election in 15 polling units of Isiala Mbano and Oru East state constituen­cy for the Imo North senatori­al rerun election last Sunday.
In a release issued yester­day in Owerri and signed by the Returning Officer, Adela­mi Asade on behalf of the State Resident Electoral Commis­sioner, Nasir Ayilara, INEC en­joined the parties concerned to collect necessary details for the election.
In another development, the Imo State Police Com­mand has denied allegations in some quarters that the Imo North rerun election was de­clared inconclusive because it was marred by violence.
In a press statement is­sued by the state Police Pub­lic Relations Officer (PPRO), Andrew Enwerem, the police said although there were “a few skirmishes by some overzeal­ous party supporters, the po­lice were able to handle the situation because of the heavy presence of the police super­vised by DIG Joshak Habila from the force headquarters and the state Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu.”