2023: Don’t Blackmail Emeka Ihedioha With Peter Obi’s Candidature — Imo Professionals Tells Uzodinma

Imo state people have been urged by a group calling themselves Concerned Imo Professionals to reject the propaganda involving Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.

The organization made the announcement during a press conference led by Professor Obioma Iheduru, who also claimed that Governor Hope Uzondinma had engaged in propaganda to damage former Emeka Ihedioha’s reputation.

The statement read: “Whereas it has never been the intention or tradition of the Concerned Imo Professionals, CIP, to unnecessarily take on matters that are generally regarded as non-issues, we are however very concerned that disgruntled elements within the Imo State ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and their cohorts, in a most nauseating and mindless fashion, have taken it upon themselves to discredit His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha CON.

“It is a mark of gross failure and administrative incompetence of the Governor Hope Uzodimma and his illegitimate regime in Imo State. For this, the regime always drags the name of an innocent, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, through the muddy waters if their clueless regime.

“We wish to state that Governor Uzodinma has failed woefully in the governance of Imo State. Hence his resort to commissioning his hatchet media propagandists, led by his Commissioner for Information, Hon. Declan Emelumba, to attack His Excellency Hon. Ihedioha in a bid to smear his character and distract the attention of the public from the failures of his regime.

“The agents of the Imo State government who are relentlessly using His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, to misrepresent and blackmail Hon. Ihedioha for the purposes of the 2023 elections are doing so with satanic intention and diabolic inclinations.

“Governor Uzodinma and his cohorts are desperate about using Mr. Obi to cover their shame and failures.

“These fruitless efforts to drag Mr. Obi into Imo State politics are completely out of the question and are bound to fail. The point we are making is that, the issue is about good governance and the future of our beloved Imo State. Therefore nobody should mistake our position or allow the attention of Imolites and Nigerians to be diverted.

“We call on Imolites to resist any effort to drag Mr. Peter Obi into the issues of misgovernance in Imo State. These gross ineptitude and high-handedness have resulted in wanton killings and kidnappings across in Imo State. Need we mention the mindless looting of the state treasury, lack of payment of salaries and pensions, and collapse of local government system and infrastructure in the state? These are the issues that a good government should be addressing rather than chasing shadows.

“Suffice to emphasis that His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, was popularly and overwhelmingly elected by the good people of Imo State across party lines. Under his administration, the people of Imo State enjoyed good governance in all sectors of the economy. And that bond is still intact and strong irrespective of the unjust Supreme Court judgment that cut short the Rebuild Imo administration.

“We in CIP, consider it mischievous and devilish to accuse Hon. Ihedioha, an acclaimed democrat and nationalist of insulting the Igbo. This is no doubt, one of the many blackmails orchestrated by Senator Hope Uzodinma and his collaborators to portray His Excellency Ihedioha in a negative manner and pitch him against Imolites.

“Hon. Ihedioha is an ardent, consistent and loyal member of the Peoples Democratic Party, who believes in the constitutional rights of the people to act according to their will.

“We advise that the ruling party and its agents should desist from these negative politics of bitterness and blackmail and deal with the real issues governance that affects the quality of life of Ndi Imo.”