Palpable tension has apparently enveloped the political atmosphere in Imo State ahead of the Saturday sitting of the governorship election petition tribunal deliver judgment in the petitions filed by three leading opposition parties and their gubernatorial candidates in the state.
The candidates include Senator Ifeanyi Araraume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Chief Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance, AA.
At the moment, high level political horse-trading is believed to be going on among the principal actors in power game as speculations are rife that the scheduled Saturday judgment of the governorship tribunal could produce some upsets.
This is frightened by the latest confirmation that tomorrow’s judgment has, for reasons not very clear, been moved to Abuja the Federal Capital, a development that has further upped the anxiety and uncertainty especially, among supporters of the incumbent Governor Emeka Ihedioha and loyalists of his ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Investigations indicate that supporters of Senator Arararume and APGA are upbeat that their candidate has presented a water-tight case in praying the tribunal to outrightly nullify the March 9 guber election on grounds of alleged irregularities violence and alleged inability of governor to obtain the necessary spread by winning one-quarter of told votes cast in atleast two-thirds the 27 local government in the state.
The APC and AA candidates on their own part, are praying the tribunal to declare them winners based on reasons bordering on alleged irregularities and non compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act as Amended vis-a0vis the issue of twenty-five percent spread in atleast 18 LGAs of Imo.
For most supporters of the incumbent Governor Ihedioha, aside the anxiety generated by the relocation of the tribunal to Abuja to deliver its verdict, there may be no cause for alarm as they seem to subscribed to the idea that their candidate, the governor won his election clean and would still win again even if there is a re-run or run off as the case may be.
There are also indications that activities of governance appear to have slowed down to an extent since the tribunal which had earlier adjourned indefinitely, fixed Saturday for judgment in Abuja.