BY JANE UKONU
The Coronavirus pandemic may not have infected anyone in Imo State but it has indeed crumbled all social and economic activities.
The ever burstling political stage in the State has also been affected by the rampaging pandemic which has infected more than one million people across the globe and forced millions of people to stay at home.
In Imo State,aside the total lockdown which has crumbled economic activities in the State, the political stage has also been deserted with political players calling off gatherings and meetings in observance of social distancing , one of the ways of avoiding being infected by the virus.
This is also in accordance with the directive of the State government which has ordered a lockdown of the State in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
Imo State has no recorded case of the virus.
The fear of virus had forced the State chapter of the All Progressive Congress, APC to suspend it’s stakeholders meeting.
The meeting scheduled to have taken place at Concorde Hotel, Owerri was called off by the State Caretaker Chairman, Marcellinus Nlemigbo.
Also affected by the pandemic was the planned State Congress of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the State.
The State Congress was suspended after the party had held it’s ward and local government Congresses where it selected party officials to run the affairs of the party in the next four years.
The biggest hit by the pandemic was the Okigwe Senatorial election which the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC suspended because of Covid 19.
The Commission, which had declared the Okigwe Senate seat vacant, because of the untimely death of Senator Benjamin Uwajumuogu, also suspended bye elections to be held in other parts of the country.
Before the polls was suspended, Okigwe North was a beehive of political activities as politicians particularly those interested in the contest, had began subtle consultations to oil their ambitions.
Stakeholders in the zone had converged at the home of a political leader in the area, Tony Chukwu where they brainstormed on the polls. Since then, all the political actors had retreated for fear of Covid 19
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