IT is now clear that the supplementary elections for governor conducted Friday last week in Imo State was an ego massage; the elections were duly concluded on Tuesday April 26 and a winner, Chief Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, clearly emerged as the winner. But like Chief Okorocha has said, it was still alright to ‘fulfill all righteousness’.

From what was recorded on April 26, one could boldly say that Imo people had already made their choice on who should be their next governor. The supplementary elections in four local government areas, namely: Ngor Okpala, Mbaitoli, Egbema and Oguta and Orji Ward in Owerri North Council could not deviate from the pattern of voting in the 23 local government areas which results had been collated. Bravely Chief Okorocha overrode incumbency factor and state power to outwit Chief Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP; the first time since the creation of Imo State in 1986 a seating governor will be rejected at the polls by the majority of the citizens.

To members of APGA, it is triumph of tenacity. Chief Martin Agbaso who was robbed of the position in 2007 is already relishing in the re-enacted exploits of the party. The same for Chief Victor Umeh, National Chairman of the party who I am sure laminated the results of the 2007 elections for posterity. He had cuddled the results and presented it to everyone who bothered to know the truth about the April 14, 2007 elections which Agbaso won, but which Professor Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, cancelled.

It is fascinating how Rochas Okorocha meandered through the landmines of the elections to beat Ohakim by close to 50,000 votes. This is notwithstanding the use of state resources and machinery to execute the campaign; in addition to desperate steps of using security agents to intimidate members of the opposition in the prelude to the election. Suffice it to say that but for the incumbency factor it would have been a disgraceful defeat.

To be sure that a third party did not relay the story to me, I had left Lagos for Imo on the eve of the election to make last minute contacts and witness the election. This denied me the opportunity of voting for Babatunde Raji Fashola who sure deserved my vote for his wonderful performance in the first term.

Though I knew that he would win I still would have loved to add one more vote to his total number of votes. However, with my wife’s vote and those of a few neighbours secured for him, I set out for the fiercer battle field of Imo.

I had travelled to see if the people could be bold enough to have their pound of flesh from a government that they had complained so much about; to see if APGA members could get their acts together this time to possess the mandate which Imo people have been giving to them freely since 2007.

I had in the past two years in particular taken up some of the party members on their inability to keep faith and see through the legal battle of Chief Agbaso, their flag bearer, who won the first governorship election on April 14, 2007, but was denied the position by INEC under Professor  Iwu who wanted his kinsman, Chief Ohakim from Okigwe zone to become the governor of the state.

It was difficult to comprehend the defection of some of the APGA members first to the Progressive Peoples Party on whose platform Ohakim went in as governor and later to the PDP when Ohakim also decamped to the party. I had also queried their penchant to repudiate the mandate Imo people gave the party as seen in the series of advertorials in the dailies then signed by some APGA members from some local government areas calling on Agbaso to withdraw from seeking redress in court and align with Ohakim.

It is noteworthy that on July 16, 2010 after three years of legal rigmarole, the Supreme Court did not consider the issue of who won the election but focused on the technical issue of originating the case from the High Court instead of the Election Tribunal. With this scenario, it was only to be expected that the fight, as it were, had only been rescheduled.

The rest is now history as Okorocha is set to be sworn in on May 29 as governor of the state. For those APGA members who persevered, they can see that politics is like the game of football which no team has exclusive right to victory.

Three factors engendered the turn of events in Imo today. First, is the vote of no confidence which many people had passed on the administration in the state in the past four years. Ohakim claims to have done his best for the people of the state, but he didn’t seem to have understood their sensitivities.

Indeed Imo has sensitivities which are not really the object of this piece. Second, the people have not forgotten the injustice of 2007 where INEC claimed that violence characterised the April 14, 2007 elections and cancelled results of the governorship elections but accepted results of the House of Assembly elections which held same day. Third, is the person of Okorocha. His antecedents speak for him.

In the past few years he has endeared himself to the people by providing some welfare services on a scale that touched every part of the state. He has really carried on as one who has the interest of the state at heart.

It is against this backdrop that the voting pattern in Owerri can easily be appreciated. Notwithstanding that it is the turn of Owerri zone to produce the next governor after Ohakim, Owerri people would rather have the post return to Orlu instead of Ohakim continuing in the next four years. In the three local government areas in Owerri, APGA led by a wide margin. In fact, the PDP did not even secure the basic 25 per cent vote in Owerri Municipal. The people must have been very bitter with Ohakim.

Many people from the town I spoke with, particularly the professionals some of whom are based in Lagos and Abuja believe that the town would be better off if good governance is entrenched in the state. Some folks I spoke with at home on the eve of the election just wanted change for whatever it represents.

When you combine the votes from this major electoral enclave with those from Orlu zone where Rochas comes from, it becomes easy to understand the turn of events in the state.

The rest from now is work and Okorocha and his team can be sure that another time of reckoning will come in four years time which may also come swiftly.

Mr. COLLINS OBIBI, a journalist, wrote from Lagos.