By Moses Nosike

WHAT started as a casual talk in Imo State that those who are queuing to be nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to fly its flag in the 2015 governorship election in the state must give account of their stewardship at the National Assembly and public offices they occupied in the past has ballooned into an unquenchable demand threatening the ambitions of some front-line aspirants.

The people of Imo state are now insisting that throwing money around and making promises are not enough to determine where the pendulum of victory would swing in the coming primaries of the party. They are challenging those who have represented the state at the National Assembly, particularly, to present their score card in terms of executed constituency projects.

Various groups in the state have warned the PDP that it will amount to political misadventure if it nominates any of these peopleas its candidate unless the people are satisfactorily convinced that the monies collected for constituency projects were duly applied to the projects the funds were collected. This is because if the party goes ahead to do what it likes disregarding the warning, the electorate will wait at the general election proper to make a statement.

A group which has been in the forefront of the accountability campaign has even gone a step further to threaten to publish the total amount collected by each of these aspirants on year-by- year basis as constituency projects on behalf of the people. The amount, according to the group, is staggering and mind-blowing with little or no reflection on the well-being of the people. Some

PDP stalwarts said they are in a quagmire on the way forward as they foresee the possibility of the party losing out in the end if it ignores the warning signs emanating from these threats. A chieftain of the party who spoke on condition of anonymity said the party could not afford to present a candidate that will have encumbrances at the general election, which may mean handing Governor Rochas Okorocha a second term on a platter.

There has been series of sensitization campaigns by various organizations from within and outside the state on the need to elect credible people into offices as a way of moving the state forward. The organizers of these campaigns have always pointed out that Imo has been a victim of individual and collective greed.

A situation where the people are willing to collect money to elect the wrong persons into offices and turn round to complain when the looting and mismanagement of state resources begin is the height of collective greed and nothing has held the state down more.