Divided Loyalty Rochas Moves Against Anti-APC Lawmakers Imo Assembly Members Divided Over Governor’s New Political Camp

As activities for 2015 general election begin to gather momentum, members of the Imo State House of Assembly who do not share same political lineage and aspirations with the Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha are in for big trouble.
Since dumping APGA, the party that brought him into power for APC, Owelle Okorocha has been pulling strings to draw most members of the Imo State House of Assembly into the new party. Apart from his co-APGA members who had the mandate of the party to be elected into a position, Okorocha using executive might has been luring members of the opposing PDP into APC with several tactics.
However, Okorocha is disturbed that despite his calculated efforts geared towards wooing the state lawmakers, none is yet to publicly declare and show interest in APC and affairs of the party. The Governor it was learnt was further miffed that majority of his APGA co-travelers during 2011 election are yet to develop interest in the APC project in Imo State.
Disturbed at the sad development, Okorocha at the weekend had a familiar meeting with members of the state legislature where he bared his mind to them on the APC issue.
Coming at the heels of a recent story carried last Thursday by Trumpeta where it reported that the State Governor has set up a three-man committee to monitor the activities of the lawmakers with a view to determining their political lineage ahead 2015. The meeting was held following discoveries by the Governor’s monitoring committee.
Trumpeta gathered authoritatively that for fear of victimization, some Lilly-livered APGA lawmakers at the meeting agreed to join him in APC. While a handful preferred to sit on the fence and watch political developments for the meantime before deciding their next party identity, others bluntly refused the APC formula.
While the ambiguous posture of the lawmakers to Okorocha was unexpected, what however jilted the State Governor during the meeting was the refusal of his APGA political soul mates to join the APC bandwagon.
A particular female lawmaker from the same clan and zone with the Governor reiterated her earlier preference to APGA irrespective of the Governor’s APC interest. The female lawmaker went further to shock Okorocha when names of the Governors new found foes, like Agbaso were at the meeting mentioned as her new leader in APGA.
The recent development has forced the Governor to devise a means to whip the lawmakers into line by using necessary instruments of victimization. Signs that the Governor is not taking the matter likely emerged when he reportedly told the uncompromising lawmakers that they are associating with his enemies and working against his political interest by failing to romance with APC.
To this end, the Governor who sensed sabotage on the part of the non APC complaint lawmakers and is waging war against them through several fronts. Part of the vengeance mission is the indifference approach of the Governor to their statutory entitlements, welfare and other benefits, due to a lawmaker of the State Assembly.
In the process, the Governor is said to be dangling mouth watering offers and incentives to the willing lawmakers who are mainly of APGA extraction said to be on their way to APC. Part of the juicy carrot being dangled to willing lawmakers is payment of security votes and allowances including grants for constituency projects.
Meanwhile, the interest of the Governor over the party identity of the lawmakers is causing serious disaffection in the State Assembly.
Discordant tunes have continued to trail the Governor’s meeting with the lawmakers polarized into different factories. While APGA lawmakers sympathetic to Okorocha’s APC and piloted by the Speaker, Ben Uwajumogu met at the Speaker’s place yesterday to review the situation, the opposing group made up of PDP lawmakers and their associates in APGA, also converged at a popular hotel in New Owerri on World Bank/Control Post road, where one of the lawmakers has vested interest. The meetings were convened to not only review but also plot survival strategizes concerning the new development.
The meetings by the different groups were dramatic when the lawmakers embarked on hide and seek game. A PDP lawmaker from Orlu Zone said to be a bossom pal of the Speaker (names withheld) reportedly abandoned his colleagues at the New Owerri hotel and attended that of the APGA-APC group held at the Speaker’s abode while few APGA members not disposed to APC hobnobbed with the anti-APC lawmakers.