Governorship candidates of opposition political parties from the Owerri Zone Senatorial District in Imo State have called on the incumbent governor and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Hope Uzodimma, to drop his second term ambition, saying his reelection would serve as an injustice to their zone.
This call comes ahead of the governorship election in the state, slated for November 11, 2023.
The Punch reports that the governorship candidates who made the call were Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party, Tony Ejiogu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Kemdi Opara of the Young Progressives Congress, and Kachi Nwoga of the Action Democratic Party.
In their assertion, it was undemocratic for Uzodimma to be seeking reelection while his Orlu Senatorial District had ruled the state for 20 years out of the 24 years since the return of democracy in 1999.
The position of the governorship candidates was part of the resolutions reached at the 5th anniversary of the Egbu Declaration held on Saturday.
Others who endorsed the communiqué included a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ahamba; former Speakers of the State House of Assembly, Nnaemeka Maduagwu; and the chaiman and secretary of the anniversary, Julius Onyenucheya and Martin Opara, respectively.
“That the generality of the people of Owerri zone further adopt all the positions of the maiden Egbu Declaration against injustice in the Imo sociopolitical landscape, which has seen Owerri zone and her people meted with the worst injustice, and call on our people not to accept the current attempt to confine our zone to a political dustbin in the Imo project.
“We deeply regret that successive political actors have continued to truncate this brotherly accord, which recognized the tripod arrangement of Imo State and laid a foundation for power to rotate between the three sister senatorial zones of Orlu, Owerri, and Okigwe, in the interest of peace, equity, and fairness,” the resolution partly reads.
