Rochas Okorocha Versus Ayisha Buhari – Imo Campaign Rally

There is a political drama unfolding at Governor Rochas Okorocha’s enclave, in this drama, the governor has his own governorship candidate while his political party has its own candidate.

This abnormal arrangement came to the fore when wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s campaign team was at Imo state to solicit for her husband’s support in the coming presidential election billed for February this year, the presidents wife openly disagreed with Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State after the governor boasted that his son in-law, Uche Nwosu will win the governorship election in the state and not the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Hope Uzodinma.

This political drama took a new turn when on Saturday the first lady and leaders of the party, and women who came from the five states of the South-east were forced out of the stadium due to the Governors attitude. The Master of Ceremony hired by the state government played dumb to the fact that Senator Uzodinma (who incidentally is the party’s governorship candidate) and Senator Ben Uwajumogu were present in the venue, it took serious pressure from party leaders who came from Abuja and and APC supporters in the state for the MC to acknowledge their presence even though he made a chorus of Uche Nwosu’s name despite the fact that APC supporters present at the venue protested his presence at the stadium, through out the programme.

There were clashes between the supporters of Uche Nwosu and those of Senator Uzodinma. Security agents had to check the looming fight between the two camps so as to save the situation. There were gunshots from security operatives when the wife of the Imo State governor was addressing the crowd. Two women sustained gunshot injury and were rushed to the hospital.

The angry crowd booed the first lady of the State because she refused to recognize Senator Hope.

However, the National Woman Leader of the APC, Hajia Salamatu Bewa Eluma, urged the crowd to vote President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Hope Uzodinma and all APC candidates in the South-East.

Other speakers concurred and called for votes for APC candidates which did not go down well with Governor Okorocha, who is supporting his in-law, Uche Nwosu, the candidate of the AA.

Okorocha, who looked visibly angry, had this to say

”the APC has not been fair to us, we are only being calm because of President Muhammdu Buhari who already has won in Imo State.

“We are going to support Buhari but let me tell you people, after we were cheated by the APC, in order to deliver the President, we formed an alliance with other political parties and leading among them is AA led by Ugwumba Uche Nwosu.

“Do not be deceived, Uche Nwosu of AA will win the governorship election in Imo State because he is on ground.

“We have no other candidate, we will not support those with stolen mandate.”

But the President’s wife, who was represented by Wife of the Vice President Mrs Osinbajo, disagreed and urged the crowd to vote all the APC candidates both in the state and the South-East.

“I am happy with the crowd we saw today it shows that Imo is APC and I want to urge all our youths not to fight, avoid any form of crisis because President Buhari is a peaceful man. From what we have seen today President Buhari has won the South East the same way all our APC candidates have won.

”a vote for Buhari is a vote for progress. APC has done well and we must all support all APC candidates.”