Call PDP, LP to drop Imo gov’ship legal battle – Njemanze tells Council of Elders
An elder statesman and a social crusader, Elder Bob Njemanze, on Wednesday called on the Imo state Council of Elders to prevail on the governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Labour Party, LP, Senator Athan Achonu to withdraw from the Imo governorship legal battle, Vanguard reports.
Njemanze made this call while speaking to newsmen in Owerri, about the 2027 Imo governorship and charter of equity.
It was his view that failure to do that it could result to an impediment to the actualization of the Imo charter of equity which is based on rotational governorship among the three Senatorial zones of Imo North, Imo East and Imo West.
Explaining further, he said: “If the elders don’t prevail on the candidates and they proceed on appeal on the judgements of the tribunal, that will vitiate the understanding of the rotational governorship and give sufficient reason to Orlu Zone to field candidates for the 2027 governorship election. This has already been expressed in their letter by OPOCA to the elders council.
“I have been reaching out to both the candidates and my friends from Orlu and Okigwe zones, and some of my contributions, even as misunderstood as they may be, are derived from these interactions. It is not enough to claim to come from Owerri Zone and refuse to be rational out of selfish considerations or greed.
“I would rather lose the battle and win the war than go foolhardy into a war I have lost even before I started. I want to believe that no matter how magnanimous and I stated this to His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma – that rather than join forces with him in a war against my people, I would remain neutral, and I also believe that he will find it difficult to fight the Orlu people in any thing that is of beneficial interest to them.
“There is no atom of a doubt that Okigwe remains the zone with the ace. Even in their seemingly small number, they can offer candidates that can easily alter the entire configuration. I still hold the view that we should swallow our pride, our greed, and our selfishness to enable us to arrive at our common goal, even if it takes us a longer time with a determined timeframe.”
“Our brothers should come together. Everyone should be on the same page. This is the time we should appeal to our brothers not to appeal the judgements of the tribunal that were delivered last Friday so as not to rock the charter of equity boat. In my well considered opinion, allowing the aggrieved persons to proceed on appeal will derail the momentum. If we mean well for our people if we would want to walk the talk. This is the time we should prevail on them to sheath the sword,” he said.
