By ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
The judgement of the Governorship Election Tribunal climaxed today with the unsurprising dismissal of the frivolous petitions of the Labour Party and their PDP counterpart, unanimously affirming the near consensus of Imo people for the reelection of His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma as the governor of Imo State. Ordinarily, there shouldn’t have been any need for these litigations, except for the selfish pursuits of these candidates who merely want to keep their ill-motivated supporters, further addled by giving them false hopes of an impossible victory.
The November 11th governorship election in Imo State will remain a watershed in the history of politics of Imo State, because it wasn’t just an election won by the incumbent but one election that resolved a lot of political, economic and even leadership questions in the State. It rested permanently, different speculations about Imo State and its politics, as it saw to an unprecedented margin of victory in the history of our politics.
Violence free, transparent, credible and without any form of electoral intimidation, the election was technically unopposed, as the two main opposition candidates chickened out before the election day, leaving their sparse supporters stranded and demoralised. While His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma secured well over 500,000 votes, his closest rival, Senator Samuel Anyanwu scored a little above 70,000 votes, representing less than ten percent of the total votes cast in that election, while the Labour Party with all the noise and the Peter Obi factor put up a very disgraceful outing with a little above 60,000 votes.
It is understood that the PDP and LP candidates went to court as a ploy to retain a grip on their Party structures in the State rather than with the slightest hope of securing any judicial respite for their dwindling political fortunes. A close associate of the PDP candidate in that election told me that his principal’s outing in the tribunal achieved its aim because if he hadn’t gone to court, he might have lost the structure of the Party to Chief Emeka Ihedioha. The same might be said about Senator Achonu who was able to appoint his domestic aides and political foot soldiers as LP officials across the State.
Governor Uzodimma couldn’t have been bothered a bit throughout the over six months of the tribunal sitting and wasn’t distracted a bit. Apart from having a competent and eagle-eyed legal team who, beyond the courtrooms also monitored and thwarted any moves to use any form of technicalities to confuse the panel, the governor is also confident of the prayers of millions of Imo people and Igbos who believe in his transformational vision for a more prosperous Imo and the southeast in general.
IMO WINS!
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