Following the recent announcement by the Senate Leadership of vacancy for the Imo North Senatorial zone seat in the Red Chamber, inview of the death and burial of Senator Benjamin Uwajimogu who represented the Senatorial District, a group under the auspices of Okigwe Patriotic Forum is urging Chief Eze Okoro to run for the re-run senatorial election describing him as a true patriot.
Barr. Valentine Anyanwu, the President of Forum disclosed this on Thursday in Owerri while addressing journalists with some members of the socio cultural organization.
According to Anyanwu “Almighty God will bear us witness that Chief Joachin Eze Okoro nor members of his immediate family are not aware of what we are saying or doing. Our resolve to beg him was borne out of our conviction that as illustrious Okigwe sons and daughters, we know our people who are passionate about the growth, development and transformation of the senatorial zone.
We know the people who can offer us quality, effective and robust representations. We have done our investigations and analyses and resolved with conviction that Chief Eze Okoro is the man that will clean Okigwe Senatorial zone from shame to glory. He is bold, courageous and has fear of God” he noted.
On why Chief Okoro considering the litany of world class personalities the senatorial zone have, Anyanwu said “even though our group is non-partisan both in politics, religion, cultural and other affairs of life, but we are worried over the backwardness and marginalization of the zone. We are disappointed that our previous representatives betrayed and sold off the zone over porridge of yam.
Chief Okoro from our findings is a man patriotically passionate over the affairs of the zone. He is man of implicit character. As a first class brain he understands the politics of the nation. He is a highly respected global player. He is selfless and has empowered thousands of Okigwe sons and daughters.
Unlike his contemporaries, he has invested so much in Okigwe above all he is humane and humble. This is why we have taking it upon ourselves to beg him to run and we will invest our money and time in him for the project. He is a man we know too well, that will certainly not disappoint Okigwe people, if he agrees on our sincere pleading” he assured.
On the issue of if he refuses what will the group do?, the President said they will do there best to convince him but if he refuses the clarion call by his kinsmen “we will not kill him. We will be glad we have done our best for history and posterity. We will not relent because we have a second and third options based in our investigations and analyses, we will go to those people, because we now want to take our destiny in our hands. We need good people with genuine means of livelihood to represent us. Days are gone when people will impose themselves on us because they have money without good integrity, antecedent and pedigree. The new dawn is that the people must be deeply involve in who represents them.
We are tired of poor representations based on imposition. Okigwe Senatorial zone will rise again through the peoples mandate and that is our mission and vision” he stated.
Anyanwu revealed also that the group wants Chief Okoro to run the Senatorial race under the political platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) on the premises that the deceased Senator is of APC political family, the state is APC, the two federal constituencies that made up the senatorial zone are being represented by APC law makers and the federal government is being controlled by APC and therefore it will not be in the overall best interest of the zone to play opposition.
He further disclosed that they have mapped out lots of strategies to persuade Chief Eze Okoro of Umuezeala-Ama in Ehime Mbano Local Government area of Imo State, a 1987 first class Biochemistry graduate of University of Calabar and a business icon to answer their clarion call.
Surprisingly, this is coming barely one week after the burial of Senator Uwajimogu and even when Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to make public the schedule and date for the re-run Senatorial election but Anyanwu insisted that the die is cast and they must be pro-active to avoid further regrets.