Ihedioha: Why Uzodimma may not survive Oct 31th

…as Samdaddy may have been removed as PDP National Secretary

The situation appears to be dicy for the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, following the communication by the Supreme Court of the hearing of the suit filed by Philip Umeadi SAN, which threatens to return a former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, as the governor of the state.

The communication with 31th of October as the date, which was sent to the interested parties was sighted by EasternEye.

It can be recalled that the Supreme Court had removed Ihedioha from office, barely eight months after he was declared winner of the 2019 Governorship election in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.

The Supreme Court further returned Senator Hope Uzodimma as the winner of the election.

Ihedioha tried unsuccessfully to get the matter reviewed by the Supreme Court.

However, Anambra born Senior Advocate of Nigeria Philip Umeadi approached the matter from another angle in his suit at the Supreme Court.

Recall that the same Supreme Court had ruled that Rochas Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, was actually the candidate of both the All Progressives Congress APC as well as Action Alliance AA, and for that, was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

Umeadi queried the Supreme Court on Uzodimma’s status, if the same court declared Nwosu as the authentic candidate of the APC.

The case which had lingered for over three years, has risen up again to haunt Uzodimma and this time, it is believed that some very powerful players even within the president’s household are behind the plot to unseat him.

Uzodimma, who was a Senator at the same time as President Bola Tinubu’s Wife Remi Tinubu, is allegedly not in very good terms with the first lady, despite the fact that she urged Imolites to vote for Uzodimma during her visit to the state.

It is also believed that some other powerful political heavyweights within Tinubu’s administration who are believed to have axes to grind with Uzodimma, might be fuelling the matter as they have decided that removing Uzodimma through the polls would not work owing to the fact that he is currently squared off against rather unpopular candidates from the major opposition parties.

Reviving the Philip Umeadi suit and thereby returning Ihedioha as governor of Imo State, seems to them, a better way to get their pound of flesh for whatever grievances they might have with the governor.

A source revealed that the situation was not a joking matter for the governor, as he is said to have relocated to Abuja but is allegedly barred from the president.

Another source close to Ihedioha stated that the Mbutu, Aboh Mbaise born political heavyweight would be returning as Imo State governor by the 31th of October.

Should this be the case, the Governorship election in Imo State will no longer hold as Ihedioha would complete his interrupted tenure of three years and five months.

At the moment, there is heightened tension in all the political camps in the state as everybody is holding their breathe in anticipation.

Another source further claimed that the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and governorship candidate of the party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu Samdaddy has been replaced.

According to the source, the replacement would be announced soon.

Samdaddy is a sworn political foe of Ihedioha as both men have battle each other since the 2019 PDP primaries, which Ihedioha won.

Ihedioha stepped down from the current Governorship race in the state when it was believed Samdaddy would use his position as National Secretary of the party, to undermine the primaries to his advantage.