Barring last minutes change, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC may have resolved to replace the embattled Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu with the newly elected Senator from Imo State, Benjamin Uwajumogu.
This revelation was disclosed by the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Daily Sun Newspaper reports this morning.
According to Daily Sun, Okorocha has said the Deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu would soon be ousted from office with the assured victory of the All Progressive Congress(APC) in the Imo North Senatorial re- run poll held last Saturday.
This was as he slammed the Deputy Senate president for relocating to Imo state during the election.
The Imo state Governor , who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, stated that the position of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate president is at the moment under heavy threat as the APC Senator in the waiting from Imo State Benjamin Uwajumogu will take over the seat as it is an aberration that a PDP senator from the South-East is deputy to an APC Senate President because, before now, APC could not produce a senator from the South-East zone.
According to Okorocha , “Senator Ekweremadu had known that such development was not only feasible but inevitable and that was why he fully funded the candidate of the PDP in the re-run senatorial poll in Okigwe zone and also re-located to the state three days to the election date.
He added , the victory of the APC in the re-run poll for Okigwe senatorial zone is a victory for the whole of South-East APC in particular and the people of the geo-political zone in general”.
He alleged that the PDP in the state had never won any election since 2003, but had written results for themselves using intimidation and harassment to achieve their goal of producing results and forcing INEC to declare them winners on the basis of the false results.
However, he noted that with the results recorded in the last Saturday’s re-run election in the affected areas only shows the new spirit of APC in the state where Benjamin Uwajumogu is leading with 8,000 votes even though the election was declared inconclusive.
Meanwhile, Ekweremadu in a sreaction said the Imo State governor is on a wild goose chase. In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Uche Anichukwu, the Deputy Senate President he was not bothered by the “wishful” prospect of an APC senator from the South East.
Ekweremadu said contrary to the allegation by Okorocha that he was in Imo State during the rerun poll so as to influence the result, he was actually in his constituency for his annual Ikeoha Scholarship and Bursary Awards/Adult Literacy Day same day the rerun poll held, noting that the last time he visited Imo was in 2015.
He wondered how Okorocha would be able to appoint a deputy senate president for the Senate, when he could secure any principal office for any of the two House of Representatives members in Imo State.
“The Deputy President of the Senate visited Imo State for the last time in 2015. It is also instructive that the governor’s claim comes on the heels of another statement by some All Progressives Congress (APC) elements in Ezeagu Local Government Area on Sunday where they whined bitterly over the huge solidarity shown by the good people, stakeholders, and traditional rulers of Enugu State to Senator Ekweremadu during his annual Ikeoha Scholarship and Bursary Awards/Adult Literacy Day at the Council headquarters on the same Saturday, June 23, 2016.
“For the same party to also claim that the same Ekweremadu who was empowering his people at Ezeagu in a well reported event on the same Saturday was also in in Imo State at the same time to influence election is just another showcase of the buffet of lies, deceit, and confusion that has become the order of the day in the ruling party”.
“The Senate has a ranking rule, and if Okorocha was not able to secure a principal office, even Deputy Majority Whip for the two House of Representatives Members from Imo State, it is left to imagination how he would be able to appoint a Deputy President for the Senate. He is on a wild goose chase”.
He advised the Imo governor and APC leaders in the South East to “preoccupy themselves with ending the invasions and killings by purported herdsmen, gross marginalization of Ndigbo in the distribution of opportunities and the blessings of democracy as well as the worrisome trend of inconclusive elections”.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu is facing Senate Standing Order forgery trial with the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and tow other officials of the national assembly.
Source: Daily Sun
Source: Daily Sun