APGA Loses Appeal To PPA

By Ashimole Felix with Agency Report.

The appeal of All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA)’s gubernatorial candidate in Imo State, Martin Agbaso, was yesterday dismissed by the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt and the court affirmed Governor Ohakim’s victory against APGA.

Agbaso had appealed, praying the court to compel INEC to release the result of the cancelled April 14^th Election in Imo State, which Agbaso claims he won. The court of appeal held that INEC was right in cancelling an inconclusive election for non compliance of a Supreme Court judgment in favour of Senator Ifeanyichukwu Ararume as the authentic PDP flag bearer for the election.

 INEC had excluded Senator Ararume and substituted his name with Charles Ugwu as the PDP candidate for the said election. In a bid to cure this defect, INEC cancelled the April 14^th Election and ordered and conducted a fresh election on the 28^th of April, which APGA and Senator Ararume contested.   

Meanwhile it is not yet uhuru for the PPA in Imo State, as the court of Appeal is yet to rule on the appeal of Hon. Uche Onyeagocha of Action Congress (AC) and Senator Ararume challenging the Imo State Election Tribunal that entered judgment in favour of Governor Ikedi Ohakim.

 

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By the Bank of Nworie

Written By Che Oyinatumba

She was the source of life in Owerri. Quenching the thirst and caressing the weary body of the countless visitors. She was the source of pride to the indigenes.  Last time I visited her, she was dead. I stood at her bank, afraid to step in and take a deserved cleansing after my long sojourn. Nworie, is the most popular stream in Owerri. I hope Otamiri, will agree.

A visit to the Egbeada Estate end of Nworie, will give you a bird view of the environmental state of Imo State, whose governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, won Thisday Newspaper’s  2008 best governor in the environment category award. I read of the award and questioned the award and reception of 2008 award in the heart of 2008, more also most of the governor awardees are facing election tribunals over their questionable victories.

Apart from a section of Nworie where Inaga (commercial motor bike) and cars have turned into a washing garage, nothing flows. The other end has a big pipe belching industrial waste into the stream. This pipe comes from Industrial Estate a few kilometres away on Owerri –Onitsha road running through the Assemblies of God, Anglican and Deeper Life Churches. The most productive industry in this industrial estate is Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), producers of Coca-cola. Attempt to get a staff of NBC to comment on their means of waste disposal met brick wall.

Another part of Nworie that suffers untold hardship is the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) through Holy Ghost Secondary School to Fuwason at Hospital/Orlu Road Junction. This stretch of Nworie, is full of weed and snakes slowly in her quest to find Imo River and finally Atlantic Occasion. The water used for washing corpse at FMC and other embalmment chemicals are washed into Nworie. The dead Fuwason while at its peak of production contributed to the death of Nwaorie. Another sorry site is at the Umezurike end of Nworie, especially by the entrance to Friend of Jesus Global Mission. Despite the culvert painted green and white, the putrefying aroma oozing out, is enough to equip a chemical war head.    

Most of the gutters in Owerri metropolis terminate at Nworie. A few finds its way to Otamiri on Owerri-Aba Road. These gutters are no longer flowing. From Fire Service through Wetheral to Okigwe Road; Douglas by Mbise Road; Bank Road to Modotel Hotel ( entrance to Government House by NTA-Library and the other end Garden Park );Ajoku by Old Stadium  turning left towards Ama JK and the tributary streets in Owerri nchi ise, the sorry state of the pure water and refuse filled gutters are the same. Even the high-brawl Ikenegbu, Aladinma and Works layout are not better off. They are stagnant with greenish water, breeding nothing but mosquitoes and constituting health hazard to the people of Imo state.

An inaga rider I engaged in a chat, whimsically said that since the governor is painting Owerri green and white, the gutters didn’t want to be left out. Hence algae and bacterium are having a field day, making mess of the Clean and Green revolution of the new face of Imo. The proponent of this concept, should look beyond the face of Imo and stare at her feet, maybe they will discover the vectors that are rubbishing the face. A beautiful face with leprous feet is still an outcast in the comity of beauty pageant. 

The government should dredge Nworie. In the 80s and early 90s, this stream was a refreshing source of drinking water and a recreation centre. The dredging of Nworie, will arrest the perennial scarcity of water in Owerri. It will also reposition Imo as a destination spot for tourists and provide relaxation spots for the customers of the teeming hotels mushrooming everywhere in Owerri. A dredged Nworie, will allow the gutters to flow freely and stop flooding of the town. The little showers of the past week buttress this, as Hospital/Orlu Road junction was impassable, despite it being a few yards to Nworie. Need I to remind his Excellency that a clean environment is a panacea to a healthy citizenry?  

 

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Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State Triumphs at the Tribunal

The Election petitions tribunal sitting in Owerri, Imo State have returned their verdict and they have ruled that Governor Ikedi Ohakim is the duly elected Governor of Imo State.

It will be recalled that the duo Ifeanyi Ararume of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Uche Onyeagocha of Action Congress (AC) went to the tribunal to challenge the election of Governor Ikedi Ohakim.

As we congratulate Governor Ohakim, we wish to encourage him to continue with the good works he has started in Imo State.

*** We will bring you more details of the ruling as it emerges.***

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Judgement Day in Eastern Heartland - Imo State

The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Owerri, Imo State will today deliver its verdict on the petitions brought against Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) by Ifeanyi Ararume of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Uche Onyeagocha of Action Congress (AC) .

Tension is high in Owerri the state capital and the recent allegation by Governor Ohakim of plots to assassinate him have not helped the palpable tension that has enveloped the state as the hour draws nearer.

Justice Ibrahim Mairiga-led tribunal will deliver the judgment around 9am, bearing any unforeseen events; we will be on hand to report the verdict to you as soon as it is delivered.

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WHO IS AFRAID OF OHAKIM?

Written By: Che Oyinatumba

The executive governor of Imo State, south-east of Nigeria,Chief Ikedi Ohakim in a state wide broadcast, alleged that some politicians are out to assassinate him.

From the text of his message, one can not but have sympathy for Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, who with naked innuendos the governor accused of being behind the plot.

I am not an Ararume loyalist. In fact if its only my vote that will swing the election in favour of Senator Ararume and this running mate Barrister Bethel Nzimako, I will cast the vote into Otamiri. You know the taste of an excretion from the smell of the fart.

These duo by their antecedents are not fit to rule Imo State. Barrister Bethel was one time Owerri-West Local Government Chairman. And while his tenure lasted, there was no significant project in Owerri-West. Same is applicable to Senator Ararume, who as chairman South-East caucus of the Senate, kept criminally silent during the raging third term issue. Furthermore, the immediate past President while endorsing Charles Ugwuh as the PDP gubernatorial flag bearer said unprintable things about Senator Ifeanyi Ararume. These utterances should be of concern to every eligible voter in Imo State.

Be that as it may, the latest attack on Ararume and the PDP, to the extent of importing militias from outside the state to cause mayhem during the welcome back into PDP rally. This phobia by Ohakim, gives one a sense of de javu. As such antics was used by Orji Uzo Kalu, when he ran out of steam in his battle with President Obasanjo before he decamped to form PPA, which true to call, is cloning a millipede of Kalus. If not why should a chief security officer wake up with this fear for his life?

Ohakim’s ill-advised broadcast has shown him as a weakling who can not hold the state. Who is Ararume that the governor should loss sleep? Or more aptly, who is PDP in a PPA controlled state? If the governor knew all he bared at the broadcast, what is stopping the Commissioner of Police from arresting Ararume? Leadership is not friendship, it takes men of courage to take a decisive decision and do that which is for the greater good of the majority of the ruled.

I guess I am getting senile, how could I have forgotten that Ohakim became governor by default and by the lingering crisis in PDP between Onongaono and Abuja PDP. With the arrow head of Abuja PDP in Imo, pacified with an ambassadorial appointment and Onongaono in firm control of all the structures in Imo State, Ohakim’s insecure feeling is manifesting in his reasoning. After all he who rides on the back of the tiger, often ends in the belly of the tiger.

Governor Ohakim, if you want to discredit Ararume, do not fan the ambers of insecurity in Imo State. If your fears are hinged on the out come of the electoral tribunal, don worry, re-present yourself in the fresh election and see whether it was the people of Imo that gave the mandate or was it a mid-night underhand dealing, presided over by the PDP war dogs now in the camp of Ararume, lapping and panting for a taste of your political blood.

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Nigeria: Man Of The Year!

Written By: Ashimole Felix

The GOLD MEDAL GOES TO Professor Maurice Iwu

The year 2007 started in Nigeria with a lot of anxiety. This uncertainty exhumed from the failed attempt at constitutional adulteration to midwife tenure extension for the Obasanjo administration.
People were skeptical if the Obasanjo administration will hand over come May 2007. On the shoulders of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rested the fate of the Nation.

Ever since the infamous April 2007, INEC and the loquacious Frankenstein Maurice Iwu have dominated the news in Nigeria. The election tribunals/courts are reversing the results from Sokoto to Kogi, through Adamawa to Rivers State. In Imo State, the Prof’s state, the fate of his kinsman (Both are from Mbano) Governor Ohakim, is on an unequal balance. President Yar’Adu’s presidency is still uncertain and may snowball into a record in Nigerian political history, if the tribunal has the balls.
Without losing steam, Maurice Iwu is still the dominant news person of the year 2007. When Nigerians thought that the upper-cut given to Iwu both by the international and local observers have floored him, he bounced back and insisted that the fraud of April 2007 was better organized than the landmark June 12, 1993.

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