BY GREG IWU#
Aggrieved chieftains of the All Progressive Congress, APC in Imo State are said to be patiently waiting on APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to constitute his reconciliation panel aimed setting things straight in the party.
President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the APC National Leader to reconcile angry and aggrieved party members nationwide. Tinubu has accepted the responsibility and is on the verge of handpicking those who will constitute his reconciliation panel.
It is uncertain if Tinubu’s team’s will visit Imo State to delve into issues arising in the party. He had last week visited Governor Okorocha in Owerri where he kicked against former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Governor Rochas Okorocha had planned to conduct mock primaries for aspirants vying for elective positions in the party. This did not go down well with some APC stakeholders in the State who kicked against the move, describing it against the tenets of the party’s constitution.
Okorocha is known not to have dropped the idea as he has severally re- echoed his desire to hold the exercise. The opposing members in the APC in the state see the mock primaries as a ploy by the Governor to foist only his loyalists as the party’s flagbearers.
This newspaper observed that while the APC in Imo State seem to be one united political family on the surface, but beneath it lies a cold war between the Governor’s camp and other party stakeholders mostly those loyal to serial governorship aspirant, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.
Governor Okorocha has steadily said Araraume and his predecessor can never succeed him as Governor thus fueling and confirming suspicions of a rift between the Governor and the Senator . Ohakim is of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and lately the Imo Governor had engaged in several verbal altercations with his predecessor.
Before now, the party leadership at the local government levels had split into two with 16 LGA party chairmen switching their allegiance to the senator.
A party chieftain who spoke on condition of anonymity said while it is not certain if issues and matters arising from Imo APC will compel Tinubu and co to intervene, the disposition of the opposing camp will determine if there would be need for such intervention if the APC in Imo State will confront other political parties at the general elections.
