In a bid to push on with plans to install his successor in 2019 within the All Progressive Congress, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha is said to have drafted his loyalists to mobilize 10 “resourceful” persons per ward in the state.
There are 305 wards in Imo state which implies he is aiming at working with 3,355 persons who will drive the succession plan across the nooks and crannies of the state.
According to sources, the 10 persons will be resourceful and will serve as foot-soldiers in the game-plan to install a successor come 2019.
“They will be resourceful persons. Well to do persons who have the capacity to influence his or immediate community” the source said.
A meeting where all the “resourceful persons” will meet with the Governor will be held soon when the list has been concluded. Each of the nominees is thoroughly scrutinized to assess his or her disposition to the Rescue mission government.
This newspaper gathered that the mobilization is in line with preparations for anyone the Governor endorses to succeed him in 2019. Okorocha was said to have scheduled December 2017 when he will unveil his successor but the announcement is predicated on when the list of his new foot-soldiers is ready.
The mobilization became necessary in view of the ongoing division in the APC in Imo State where the party’s delegates list seem to reportedly favour Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.
Our sources said Araraume’s infiltration and upper hand in the party has unsettled the government and was worsened by the fact that his men’s dominated the APC delegates list. It was gathered that the Governor does not want to gamble with the idea of relying on party officials to anchor his succession agenda, thus will now rely on thousands of his foot-soldiers at the grassroots to do the job for him.
There are indications that some of the existing structures he had put in place in the past such as the redundant Community Government Council, CGC has lost his confidence and trust because of the level of their uncertain political alignments.
Some of those whom he nominated as delegates in the APC suddenly found their names too in Senator Araraume’s delegates list