BY: CAJETHAN IKE, Editor At Large
There is high level intrigue and horse trading over who becomes the Speaker of the incoming 9th Imo State House of Assembly.
This is coming two months even before the inauguration of the executive arm of government.
The State Assembly is expected to be inaugurated in June.
However because of the plurality of members elect of the incoming Assembly, this newspaper gathered that there is so much horse trading, intrigues and arguments leading to the choice of Speaker and other principal officers of the House.
This is so because the incoming ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have slight majority in the incoming legislature with 14 members elect, while two opposition parties, the Action Alliance, AA and the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA have a total of 14 members elect. ( AA- 8, APGA 6)
If zoning of offices still hold water in the State, then the PDP is completely shut out from producing the Speaker because it did not win a single seat from Okigwe zone having produced the incoming Governor and Deputy from Owerri and Orlu zones respectively.
This has set the stage for a fierce scramble for the Speakership position by members elect from Okigwe zone who are all members of AA and APGA.
Reports available to this newspaper indicate that as part of the dynamics and shaping the choice of a Speaker for the 9th Assembly, one of the members elect from Okigwe zone who is making his second return to the House is alleged to have dumped his original party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
At a strategic meeting held at the weekend, the House member elect was alleged to have come under pressure to dump his party and align with the PDP to brighten his chances of grabbing the number three post in the State
However, there are concern within the PDP leadership in the State if they can trust “a decampee” lawmaker from another political party whose political taproot is either with the outgoing Rochas Okorocha Administration or the APGA governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Araraume.
Sources said despite the victory of Hon.Emeka Ihedioha as Governor Elect, it will be political suicide for the incoming government to have a Speaker who is part and parcel of the outgoing government or from the flank of the opposition
A top chieftain of the PDP in the State who spoke on condition of anonymity said it will be grave danger for a Speaker to come from either AA or APGA even if he or she decamps to the PDP at the eleventh hour.
“It is true Ihedioha has won.But we cannot trust someone from AA or APGA to lead the House of Assembly. The Action Alliance, AA governorship candidate is still opposed to the election that brought Ihedioha to power.
“When you look at the dynamics carefully, AA and APGA have 14 members elect. The PDP do have 13 members elect. Politics is all about conspiracy and if 14 members from the opposition parties conspire against the Executives you already have 2/3rd majority that can impeach the Governor.
“The Governor elect is yet to assume office. Even the APGA governorship candidate, Senator Araraume has not Congratulated Ihedioha on his victory. The same can be said of the AA governorship candidate who is challenging the outcome of the election that produced Ihedioha as Governor.
“Much as we respect the independence of the legislature and I believe the plurality of members elect will give us a robust and active House of Assembly, we cannot trust anyone from the opposition at this time even if he decamps to the PDP to be the Speaker of the House.
“We are all witnesses to the activities in the 9th Senate. Bukola Saraki who emerged the Senate President was of the APC but he was a mole in the ruling party having aligned with the PDP to become Senate President. You saw how he later dumped the APC and joined the PDP.
” We all saw how the policies of the Buhari government were frustrated by a non friendly senate. We are towing similar path in Imo.
“Therefore Ihedioha will be sitting on a keg of gunpowder if a core PDP member elect is not made the Speaker of the House. “There are many banana peels littering around him and he cannot afford to step on them if he must suceed in the task of rebuilding Imo.
Based on these fresh narratives, It was observed at the weekend that some party leaders in the PDP are pushing for Orlu zone to produce the Speaker of the 9th Assembly.
The PDP won four seats in Orlu zone namely Oru West, Oru East, Orsu and Orlu State Constituencies.
They anchor their argument on the grounds that the office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly is not subject to zoning or rotation.
One of the leaders told this newspaper
“What the charter of equity which does not even exist states is zoning of the office Governor and Deputy Governor. Did it say the office of Speaker of the House should be subjected to zoning
” The watchword here is trust and not sentiments without compromising the independence of the State legislature.