The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Imo State, stand the risk of losing Imo West Senatorial (Orlu zone), after the Supreme Court sacked it’s Senatorial candidate, Hon Jones Onyeriri.
Commotion had set in the zone in the party after the sack of its senatorial candidate by the apex court. Some party leaders pointed fingers at a former governor of the State, Emeka Ihedioha, for the party’s bundling out of the Senatorial race.
A statement three days after Supreme Court nullified the election of Onyeriri, the Orlu PDP leaders stated that “following the Supreme Court verdict nullifying the election of Dr.Jones Onyeriri as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Imo West Senatorial district, leaders and stakeholders of the party in Orlu zone have vehemently declared Chief Emeka Ihedioha persona non grata for ‘masterminding’ the loss.
Onyeriri’s sack has weakened other candidates jostling for House of Reps and State House of Assembly seats.
Analysts contend that barely few weeks to the presidential and National Assembly elections, the absence of a PDP senatorial candidate in Orlu zone, has given edge to candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Senatorial Osita Izunaso and Labour Party, Charles Ahize, ahead of the Febuaary 25 Presidential and National Assembly polls.
“The major threat to the APC, in Orlu zone, which is the Senatorial zone of Governor Hope Uzodimma, is the PDP. With it’s Senatorial candidate out of the contest via the Supreme Court judgement, the coast is seemingly clear for the APC and the LP” said a Eke Uba, a political analyst based in Owerri.
With the PDP out of the picture, the race for Orlu Senate has been narrowed down to a two horse race, a development which may equally affect the chances of the party in other zones of the State.