The announcement on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, by the former governor of Imo State, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, withdrawing from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary’s election for the November 11, 2023 governorship election, has elicited mixed reactions from all fronts in the polity....CONTINUE READING
While his fans, supporters and followers see it and celebrate the action as commendable, Ihedioha’s traducers point to it as a sign of weakness. His biggest rivalry in the internal intrigues of PDP in the state, the national secretary of PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu otherwise known as Samdaddy, described it as an action coming from a democrat…..CONTINUE READING
It was on that political highway that Samdaddy, speaking through his media aide, Comrade Ikenna Orioha took to the public space and called on Imo voters “To join hands to sack vicious, corrupt APC government in Imo”.
Expectedly, that did not go down well with the Imo APC as its publicity secretary, Comrade Cajetan Duke Akuta, fired back through a release made available to journalists in Owerri.
In the release with the headline Don’t lose your national party assignment LOSE YOUR for a non-available position, the ruling party made it clear that Samdaddy had no capacity, mortality or muscle to run for the governorship election on November 11, 2023.
According to APC, “Ordinarily, we would have ignored such shallow, loose and miserable comment, but coming from a man like Senator Anyanwu, whose unpalatable political antecedent is well-known to every Imolite, it provokes an advisory response.
“It is indeed regrettable and unfortunate that such a deliberate and deleterious falsehood could be credited to Senator Anyanwu, who through his political actions and inactions before events of the past few days, had always shared the conviction that Governor Hope Uzodimma’s recovery of his stolen mandate from Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha was the best thing to have happened to Imo people.
“In addition, nothing could be more laughable and ridiculous than Senator Anyanwu, who to the knowledge of every discerning Imolite and Nigerians in general, was himself the biggest misfortune and disaster that happened to opposition PDP in Imo State, to now turn around and begin preaching for the unity of a house he destroyed its foundation irredeemably”.
The APC stated that Samddady committed political suicide when it described Uzodimma’s administration as corrupt.
It noted that “It’s comical and quite delusional for Senator Anyanwu to describe the APC-led shared prosperity administration of Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma as “vicious and corrupt”. A government that has zero tolerance for self-aggrandizement and inordinate conversation of public wealth to personal wealth cannot be gainsaid. Senator Anyanwu is aware that the state government under Governor Hope Uzodimma while building (to the admiration of both Imo citizens and non-citizens alike), world-class road infrastructure across the state, has continued to meet his obligations regarding genuine Imo workers and pensioners in terms of prompt payment of salaries and monthly pension. It can only take a prudent and financially-disciplined administrator like Uzodimma to achieve such feat”.
The APC thereafter sounded it clearly that Samdaddy is embarking on a fruitless journey.
“It is on this premise that we wish to advise the National Secretary of the now comatose PDP, one more time, to keep his eyes off Douglas House, and concentrate on the task before him- to recover and rebuild the party, which he played a significant role in bringing to its ruin.
“All serious-minded Imolites, including those who left a dishonored ticket for him, are aware that there is no vacancy in Imo Government House until 2027”, it enthused.
The Imo APC hinted that Samdaddy had not got what it actually required to dislodge Uzodimma from the Imo State Government House. Thinking and doing so will be a counter productive for Samdaddy.
“It will be a costly and self-inflicted injury for our brother Senator Anyanwu to resign his current position in pursuit of an obviously unrealistic, unavailable and unrealizable position of Imo State. It doesn’t require a soothsayer to know that PDP as presently constituted in Imo State does not have the capacity and capability to mobilize the Imo electorate as required to successfully defeat the APC.
“In addition, Senator Anyanwu we know, does not have the character, integrity and of course the public appeal to galvanize any meaningful solidarity to match the popularity, credibility and acceptability of Governor Hope Uzodimma, the statement added.
What shocked all was when the release drove it home that Samdaddy had been working for Uzodimma even national secretary of PDP. “It is a known fact that Senator Anyanwu and his one-man band codenamed: Divine Mandate Organization, would have worked for the re-election of Governor Hope Uzodimma had Ihedioha continued with the prosecution of that his failure-bound guber project. It’s obvious that Senator Anyanwu was the biggest manacle on the wheels of the PDP journey to electoral fortune. Such a character is not deserving and worthy to lead our people, not as a governor”, the APC concluded.
A member of the Divine Mandate group of Samdaddy, Oliver Chikwado, a resident in Owerri, responding to the APC’s attack on his principal, revealed that the ruling party, through its lengthy conversation to a simple matter, had demonstrated its failure and lack of goodwill to retain power in Imo State.
“I can tell you that the APC, through its recent attack on the national secretary of PDP, Distinguished Senator Samuel Anyanwu who we all lovely call and address as Samdaddy, has justified what even everybody knows, which is, Governor Uzodimma and APC’s dishonesty, criminality and lack of vision to give Imo State a clear direction for purposeful leadership”, he began.
Chikwado added, “Read through the release by the APC publicity secretary and you will discover nothing but empty boasts, names calling and lack of direction. Our question is, before Uzodimma came to power, was there anything like insecurity in Imo? The answer is in the negative. It was Uzodimma’s poor handling of a mere issue that led to the full blown insecurity we have now in the state.
“Again, what has Governor Uzodimma done since he came into power? I mean in areas like health, education, transportation and sports. We recall vividly that he supervised the relegation of our dear Heartland FC to the lower division. Just go to the local councils and hinterlands and you can see that the entire road network in the state has completely crashed to an all time worse proportion. Our people are aware of this and they are ever ready to vote him out of office…..CONTINUE READING
