The fate of the Southeast in the next dispensation came under focus yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital, as leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone reviewed the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections.
In the results posted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), all the 15 senatorial seats and House of Representatives seats in the five states- Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Anambra and Abia - were won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
But the APC will control the federal government, following the election of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha lamented at the meeting that the Igbo may lose the chance to produce the next Senate President.
He blamed Igbo leaders from the zone for the “unfortunate” situation, adding that “their selfishness and lack of vision have kept Ndigbo in the back seat of the nation’s politics, despite their contributions to the overall development of the country.”
Okorocha added: “It is very painful for the Igbo to lose the position of the Senate President after being denied any leading position in the country for a long time because our political leaders and office holders used their positions to rig out APC candidates in the election.
“There was no election in the entire Southeast on the 28th of March. The PDP leaders with the aid of the military and INEC officials intimidated and harassed our people and thereafter wrote the results in their homes. I assure you that all hope is not lost because we are going to recover our stolen mandate.
“We saw it coming and we told the political leaders why Ndigbo should embrace the APC but they could not believe us but today the story has changed and the PDP they have been following all these years with nothing to show for it’s now an opposition party.”
The governor assured APC supporters that the hope of the Igbo of regaining the senate presidency was not totally lost.
An APC leader, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu observed that with the emergence of the APC, politics had changed considerably.
He noted that it was the first time in the history of Nigeria that power will be transferred from one political party to another, adding that “Nigeria is moving forward and the Southeast must not be left behind”.
He said: “For too long, the Southeast put all their political eggs in one basket. They were taken for granted. The things that were of great importance to them were left undone. They gave their very best to the PDP but got little or nothing to show for it. The people of the Southeast should embrace the APC and make it the number one party in the zone.
“The people of the Southeast need Nigeria just as Nigeria needs them. We must be in the mainstream of Nigerian politics. Our political home should be the APC. In the last election, members of the APC in the Southeast were not treated fairly. They were harassed and intimidated by the PDP and those who were rejected were declared winners.”
Senator Chris Ngige, who lost his reelection bid in Anambra Central Senatorial zone, said the PDP had no scorecard to show Nigeria, especially in the Southeast.
He assured the people that the March 28 election was the end of bad elections in the country. “We are happy that the manipulation of the PDP in the Southeast could not stop the APC from winning the election,” Ngige said.
The APC National Auditor, Chief George Moghalu, praised the people for having confidence in the pioneer members of the APC in the zone, when the message of change was first brought to the zone.
“We are here today to thank those of you that believed in us and we assure you that you will not be left behind. Majority of the so-called political leaders from the zone could not see what we saw and today they will come back to benefit from a system they tried hard to destroy.”
Also at the gathering were APC National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso,
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