Fred Itua, Abuja
Less than one month after the senator representing Imo North, Ben Uwajumogu was buried, the tussle to replace him has gained momentum.
Already, a sister to the late senator, Chidinma Uwajumogu, has joined the race to replace his brother and serve out the remaining three years.
Mr. Vincent Uba, the national coordinator, No Alternative to Buhari-Osinbajo 2019 (NATBO 2019) campaign group, has endorsed Uwajumogu.
He disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja. He berated a newspaper publication of March 4 which mocked the family of the late senator, tagging them as mourners who were jostling to replace the late senator.
Uba pointed out that all those from Okigwe zone were mourners and only those same people can replace the late senator as was the case when the Osun senator, Isiaka Adeleke died.
He said from the array of the qualified persons that had presented themselves for the race, Chidinma Uwajumogu stood out.
He said: “This Chidinma called Ada, meaning the first daughter, is the first daughter of Benjamin Onyebuchi Uwajumogu who was the arrowhead of the late Chief Sam Mbakwe’s administration as the governor of the old Imo State.
“The success story of Sam Mbakwe’s administration as the best governor Imo State had ever produced cannot be complete without mentioning the name of Benjamin Onyebuchi Uwajumogu.
Recall also that Mbakwe and Uwajumogu were the closest associates of the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who once slept in the family house of Uwajumogu called “Chidinma”.
“This Chidinma, after the death of her father, started to nurture her brother, the late Sen. Ben Uwajumogu, politically. Dr Chidinma Uwajumogu was instrumental to the rise of late Senator Ben Uwajumogu to the height he reached till his death.
“Dr Uwajumogu, working in the office of the former First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, was the Director-General of Women for Change Development Initiative – a women movement that was her brainchild.
“She also founded the Development Initiative for African Women (DIFAW) and is the Matron and Mother of Women for Buhari-Osinbajo, a campaign group that played active roles in the re-election of Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo as president and vice-president.”
Uba noted that she had been consistent in working to make Okigwe the fulcrum of APC in Imo State and indeed the whole of the South-East region of Nigeria.
He insisted that with her efforts, Okigwe had been the political base of APC in Imo State.
“Right from the inception of APC, she is the only person among those jostling to replace her brother in Okigwe who has remained in APC.
“It is laughable to hear some people say that she cannot contest in Okigwe zone because she was married to a man from the Owerri zone.
“The people who say this can be described as aliens who are uninformed about the political history of Nigeria because there is no law that forbids anyone from seeking election in any place he or she chooses within the country.
“The fact that she was married to a man from the Owerri zone does not make her illegible to contest in her paternal Okigwe zone.
“Some prominent Nigerian women who have achieved success in their political carriers are known to have contested elections in their paternal bases.
“Senator Florence Ita-Giwa from Cross River who was married to an Edo State man, contested election outside her matrimonial base and today she is a big name to reckon with in political circle,” he said.