IMO PDP dares Governor Uzodinma; vows back to back protests
The Imo state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed Governor Hope Uzodinma’s threat to ban protests in the state, saying that the governor has no power to stop them from protesting against the injustices meted on them.
According to Daily Times, the leadership of the party also insisted that it would continue to protest over the outcome of the January 14, Supreme Court judgment which sacked former Governor Emeka Ihedioha as the governor of the state and declared Uzodinma as the rightful winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election in the state. Governor Hope Uzodinma had last week threatened that he would no longer tolerate any form of protest capable of inciting the people of the state against his administration.
But, in a statement issued after the party’s stakeholders meeting in Owerri, the party said it would “continue to employ every legal means available to the party to make sure that the unjust judgement given against the party, ex-Gov. Emeka Ihedioha and his deputy, Gerald Irona by the Supreme Court is reviewed and reversed.” The statement signed by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Damian Oparah, added that “the party shall keep on demonstrating/protesting within the constitutional rights of her members, to peacefully and publicly show our support for Governor Emeka Ihedioha, his deputy, Gerald Irona and our unacceptable tendencies towards the Supreme Court judgement.”
On the recent decamping of some lawmakers and chieftains of the party to other parties, the party said their action was of no consequence to the popularity of PDP and her teeming supporters in the state. The party said it would however, employ all legal options to recover the seats of all the elected members who left the party. “The party in Imo state shall in conjunction with the national organs of the party employ all legal options to recover their seats in the House of Assembly, as the national secretariat has already declared their seats vacant. “The stakeholders finally urged all PDP members to remain faithful to the party and leave all those who have left the party as there is a better future for them within the PDP than elsewhere, since what the party is facing now in Imo state is a temporal set back,” the statement stated.