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Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The former military governor of old Imo State, Brig-Gen Ike Nwachukwu (retd), and other notable leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the South-East, led by National Vice Chairman Emma Emeukwu, on Thursday paid visits to Governor Hope Uzodinma to congratulate him on his victory at the Supreme Court.
While the former military governor visited in the morning, the APC leaders showed up midday, according to an inside source from the State House.
Details of their visit to the Governor was not made public as they met indoors.
A reliable source, however, disclosed to Daily Sun that the visitors had gone to urge the Governor to focus his attention on governing the state and to ignore distractions from any quarter.
Meanwhile, Governor Uzodinma has called on leaders and supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) protesting the Supreme Court judgement that brought him to power to stop wasting their time with “rented” crowds.
According to the Governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Oguike Nwachukwu, most of the protesters, whom he said are ignorant of their actions, are being deceived to protest against a government that has moved on to deliver the dividends of democracy to them.
“They should stop flogging a dead horse and move on, they should not continue wasting the precious time of these good citizens who they are taking advantage of. We have moved on and so should they,” Uzodinma was quoted as saying.
Uzodinma’s media campaign director Mbadiwe Emelumba has claimed that those who took part in the protest on Thursday were not an organic crowd from the state, claiming that they were rented from neighbouring the states of Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra.
“Most of the few hundreds of protesters that walked the outskirts of Owerri metropolis on Thursday are not from Imo State. I can authoritatively tell you that they were hired from neighbouring states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu,” he claimed.
Emelumba advised the protesters to stop distracting the Governor and allow him to continue providing good governance to the people, just as he noted that the people of Imo are very happy with him in office.
“When the Governor visited the relief market in Owerri on Monday, the rousing ovation that greeted his arrival by the traders clearly underscore this fact.
“The same scenario repeated itself at the state government secretariat on Wednesday when the Governor went to inspect the secretariat. The workers were ecstatic in their rousing welcome. Their loud shouts of ‘Onwa Onwa’ made such great scene that motorists plying the Owerri-Port Harcourt highway had to stop to know what was going on,” Emelumba stated.
“So if traders, market women and men, workers, as well as civil servants are happy with the Governor, what is left of the Imo population? Believe me, those people protesting are not Imo people. At any rate, what are they protesting against?” he queried.
“Ask the protesters and they will tell you that they don’t even know. They were hired to do the bidding of the PDP. The Imo election petition matter is dead and buried. The PDP should stop hiring foreigners to create a false impression about the situation in Imo State.”
