By Williams Odunze
Another Tragedy has struck Orlu Senatorial District once again.The People’s Mandate has been stolen from them.
This time around,it is no longer at gunpoint,It is a total broad day theft by the power that be in Imo in connivance with compromised INEC Returning Officer.
The electorates in the Zone have regretted exercising their franchise and their Civic responsibility in futility.
The Political Vultures have appeared again and devoured the effort of the people to enthrone Legislative Sanity and tranquility in the zone and that is as it affects the Presidential and National Assembly Elections held on February 25.
The question still remains, where did the INEC Returning Officer obtained the figures from which Osita Izunaso was declared winner of Orlu Senate Seat in the said election?
Was it from another planet?
It is a general knowledge that some Polling Units in the area are in the lists of polling booths which INEC said that elections would not take place.
Unquestionably,Oru East Local Government the home town of the Governor of Imo State,Senator Hope Uzodinma is among the area INEC declared as no go area and there was no election(s) held in that area,but surprisingly thousands of fictitious results were said to have been generated from the area.
Two days after the election, a group of protesters from the area besieged INEC office in Owerri demanding an outright rejection of results purportedly obtained from the area insisting that there were no elections in that Local Government.
One of the protesters,Hon.Nze Nlem voiceferously stated that there was no election in the 171 polling units in the area and wondered how thousands of votes emanated from the there
Another protester,Ozoemena Agbaka also confirmed that no election held in Orsu Local Government Area.
In Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area, where election took place, the outcome of the exercise was very self explanatory,Labour Party,LP was sweeping every where.
In Obitti-Ohaji Autonomous Community for example, Labour Party was leading in all the polling Booths likewise other places where election took place in the Senatorial Zone.
What I observed was that People who came out to vote during the election were voting for change of leadership, very eager to exit the old Politicians that kept the zone in the dark all through their legislative laxity.
I saw people who are thirsty for new leadership with new ideas and determination.
They defied insecurity, rain and sun.Put in abeyance their personal activities for the day and marched out to take their destiny in their own hands while few people in their secret places were hatching evil plans against the free will of the people.
Let me ask again, between Charles Ahize, Osita Izunaso who won the Orlu Senatorial election?
The question, though, sounds rhetoric but the answer is very simple.
Senator Osita Izunaso was first elected in 2007 after allegedly conniving with Achike Udenwa the then Governor of Imo State to oust Senator Arthur Nzeribe from the Senate accusing him of Monopolizing the Seat and not doing anything for the people of the zone legislative wise.
In 2011,he,Izunaso was unseated by Hope Uzodinma who represented the zone from 2011 to 2019 from where the present Senator, Rochas Anayo Ethelbert Okorocha took over. Rochas was the former Governor of Imo state before he ventured to contest for a seat in the Red chamber.He fought Hon.Jones Onyereri to occupy the Senatorial position for Orlu Zone.
Ironically,non of them have performed beyond their Predecessor who they accused of not doing anything.But under their watch the worst legislative disservice have happened.
Will we talk about insecurity that has perversed the area or the Constituency projects funds that are yet to be accounted for in the face of environmental decay and infrastructural deficiency.
The Zone currently,is in dare need of a voice that will speak boldly for them.
A new voice with new Legislative ideas that will speak actions to the yearnings of the people of the zone.
Somebody that will give louder voice to problems of the zone.
And in my own wisest observation, Osita Izunaso is the last person the people wanted to be there. He was there before and he couldn’t perform satisfactorily. So,now the people said why vote him again,what can he and his APC failed party do?. Nothing! So,they opted for Chief Charles’ Ugochukwu Ahize of the Labour Party,LP.
Izunaso is among the old voices that the people are tired of listening to and who failed them woefully.
Izunaso cannot boast of any legislative input he had made in the area when he was in the Senate.
What he succeeded in doing was unseating Senator Arthur Nzeribe and rendering the zone voiceless.
Coming again for the same job is not the wish of the people.Is there any thing different that he is going to do this time? The answer is capital NO.
What happened on February 25 was clear, Charles Ahize won the election and Uzodinma’s APC as usual allegedly robbed him of victory via rigging.
Ahize’s emergence in the scene was what the people have long anticipated , having suffered much from the old representatives
who had only speak for their selfish interest.
Ahize was the most craved candidate. In the words of Professor Chinua Achebe,he was the “man of the people”and coming from the Labour Party kept him much far better from his rivalries.
Before the election,he has toured the nooks and crannies of the zone giving hope to the hopeless assuring them that new Legislative era have come to stay.
He is the one,people believe will make practical legislation a reality.
With this new hope the people defied all odd and troop out to make the change come to reality.
But there and behold the undemocrats, the usurpers,the carriers of unholy deeds with compromised INEC officials once again dashed the hope of the masses.
February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, will remain indelible in the political history of Orlu zone as on the day Victory of the people was stolen.
But there is hope. The people must rejoice with their victory, their labours will never be in vain.
Charles Ahize must reclaim the mandate given to him by the people,God forbid,affilictions will not continue to happen, there must be a stop to every evil.
There is always light at the end of every tunnel.
Charles Ahize should not allow the people’s mandate to go in vain.
He must make sure that the people’s mandate is restored.
The declaration of Osita Izunaso as Senator for Orlu Senatorial District must be challenged in the court.
NIGERIA NEWSPOINT
