From Marcel Duru, Owerri.
Imolites across the three Senatorial Zones of the Twenty Seven Local Government Areas of Imo State have lambasted Governor Hope Uzodimma for declaring Imo a one party State.Speaking at Groove FM program tagged the Brief Chief Jude Ugboaja from Arondizogu, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State said that for Senator Hope Uzodimma to declare Imo a party State mean that he is not a true democrat, adding that opposition is the beauty of democracy.In his own comment Chief Cosmas Ugwunali from Mbaitoli Local Government Area of the State said that Uzodimma 60 days ago told Imolites that It is no longer democracy if there is no opposition, condemned him for speaking with two sides of his mouth and he called Imolites to ignore the declaration that has element of primitivity.It could be recalled that Governor Hope Uzodimma made comments that “Imo is now a one-party state” declaration during a public event with APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje, while commissioning roads in Owerri.
He said other political parties had “faded away” and “disappeared” in Imo because APC’s developmental projects won the people over,Performance and Charter of Equity* He credited APC’s dominance to “superlative performance in the last 5 years” and “human oriented projects”.He said Imo people rejected opposition candidates in the last gov election because they “swam against the tide” of the _Charter of Equity_ which rotates power across the 3 zones. That made elections “rancour-free and less expensive”.Uzodimma further stated that APC dominance in elections example House of Assembly and LGA elections where APC “clinched virtually all the elective positions”.But he also warned about democracy*In a separate event 60 days ago, he said:“It is no longer democracy if there is no opposition. I encourage opposition parties to work hard, do what the ruling party has done, and when, by the grace of God, it becomes their turn, they will elect their own president”_Call for unity and 2027 support*At the expanded stakeholders meeting, he urged APC members to remain united and “work harder to ensure that President Bola Tinubu gets a huge number of votes from this state in the coming election as a show of gratitude for his sterling performance and… goodwill towards the state and the South-East” “APC is strong because of grassroots mobilization: membership registration was done electronically, to the validation of members — you can see 35,000 human beings in just one ward, ambition is not a crime, but we must be mature enough to handle both successes and failures.”
