BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

The governorship and House of Assembly elections in Imo State has all it takes to make it an epic political battle for the soul of the state. The contending political parties of note are the largely dominant People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Apart from the PDP and APC, there are other  struggling political parties like All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Accord and United Progressives Party, UPP, that are angling to rule the state. Similarly, some individuals and realities on ground may ultimately account for the success or failure of the parties in certain areas of the state.

It had been touted that Imo is a PDP state since the current democratic engineering started in 1999. This again played out in the last Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. The PDP cornered all the senatorial seats and equally captured eight out of the 10 House of Representatives seat, leaving a paltry two seats for the APC.

Gov Okorocha of Imo State

A good lesson learnt from the last electoral outing is that Imo experienced poor turnout of the registered voters. About 1.8 million people registered to vote in the state but only about 780,000 presented themselves for accreditation. About 731,921 valid votes were cast and about 28,957 voted rejected. The PDP scored 559,185 votes and the APC managed 133,253.

In Orlu senatorial zone, some PDP political heavy weights, who are going to call the shots includes the incumbent Senator Hope Uzodinma, hard-fighting member of the House of Representatives, Chief Jerry Alagboso, former governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa, former speaker of the State Assembly, Chief Goodluck Nanah Opiah and a host of others.

Orlu, the senatorial zone of the incumbent governor, Rochas Okorocha,  will definitely turn out to be a “battle area” for the plum gubernatorial job. While Okorocha, who is the only gubernatorial candidate from Orlu zone, will go into the battle with all in him and bearing in mind that he may get sympathy vote from his people, the PDP stalwarts from the area are equally poised to match him “Naira for Naira”.

The situation in Owerri senatorial zone is a little dicey. There are about four gubernatorial candidates from this area. Prominent amongst them are the Deputy Speaker, Chief Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP and Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho of the APGA. The fear here is that if they effectively and unduly split the votes in this area, Okorocha may carry the day if he gets block votes from his Orlu brethren.

Ihedioha, PDP Candidate

However, PDP big shots like Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the Minister of State for Education, Professor Viola Onwuliri, Chief Samuel Anyanwu, Chief Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe, Sir Bede Eke, Chief Ezenwa Onyewuchi and a host of other big party faithful, will go all out to ensure victory for PDP.

The situation may not be too different in Okigwe Zone. While there are insinuations that the likes of Chief Ifeanyi Araraume and the former governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, who have large disciples in the state, have dumped the party and are likely going to work against it, some of their close aides have since debunked the rumour.

For the APC, the governor is banking on all his appointees, some of the new decampees, traditional rulers, APC party officials, his friends and relations, to fight his way back into Douglas House, Owerri.

Whichever way the unfolding political battle is looked at, it is definitely going to be the final push of the political gladiators in the state.