Imo Senate: Organisation canvasses for late senator’s sister
Senate
By Ifeanyi Nwoko
Abuja, March 5, 2020 (NAN) No Alternative to Buhari-Osinbajo 2019 (NATBO) has urged the All Progressive Congress to consider the candidacy of Chidinma Uwajumogu for the Imo North Senatorial ticket.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, the group said that the sister to the late Senator stood out among all those who had presented themselves to vie for the position.
Mr Vincent Uba, National Coordinator of NATBO frowned at a recent publication which mocked those jostling to replace the late senator, calling them mourners.
Uba maintained that all those from Okigwe zone were mourning the late senator, stressing that it was the same people from the zone that would have to replace the late lawmaker.
Uba maintained that in terms of grassroots reach and capacity, Chidinma was better placed to occupy the vacant position in the senate.
“This Chidinma is the first daughter of Benjamin Onyebuchi Uwajumogu who was the arrow head 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.
“This Chidinma, after the death of her father, started to nurture her brother, the late Sen. Ben Uwajumogu, politically. she was instrumental to the rise of late Senator.
“Dr Uwajumogu 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.” he said.
Uba noted that she had been consistent in working to make Okigwe the fulcrum of APC in Imo State, saying that with her efforts, Okigwe had been the political base of APC in Imo State.
He maintained that right from the inception of APC, she had been the only person among those jostling for the position that had 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.
“Some prominent Nigerian women who have achieved success in their political carriers are known to have contested elections in their paternal bases while being married.
“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.
Uba listed other notable women who held elective positions in the paternal base to include: Sen. Daisy Ehanire-Danjuma, Sen. Fatimat Rasaki and Sen. Stella Oduah who married an Edo State born man but currently serving as a Senator representing Anambra North.
He maintained that constitution of Nigeria allowed these people to contest at their paternal areas after being married outside their bases, and as such the case of Uwajumogu would not be an exception.
“Dr Chidinma Uwajumogu should not be an exception. She is a woman of high virtue, wisdom, intellect and a grassroots mobiliser who we know will continue from where her brother stopped as the best senator ever produced in Okigwe,” he said. (NAN)
ICN/ISMA
========
Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz