Imo North Senatorial Ticket: Hope, Ararume in fight to finish

By Ori Martins

All is not well in the All Progressives Congress (APC) fold in the Heartland enclave as uncertainty still beclouds the authentic candidate for the Imo North Senatorial District otherwise known as Okigwe Zone for the 2027 National Assembly election.

Currently, there are two APC candidates for the Imo North Senatorial District, both claiming ownership of the tecket.

In the primary election conducted by the camp of governor, Sen Hope Uzodimma, in Okigwe Zone, the sitting National Assembly member, Sen Patrick Ndubueze, emerged.

However, in a most dramatic move that stunned the entire Imo North Senatorial District, a faction of the APC loyal to the former senator who represented Okigwe in the Zone in the Red Chamber between 1999 and 2007, Chief Ifeanyi Ararume, emerged as the standard bearer of the ruling party.

The publicity secretary of APC in the state, Dr Onwuasoanya Jones, in a bid to clarify issues, noted that the candidate of APC in Okigwe Zone for the 2027 senatorial election was Ndubueze.

He stated that the APC as a party had processes and procedures for electing candidates. He frowned at a situation where party members resorted to distortion or manipulation of guidelines and rules aimed at maintaining standards of APC for primary elections. The state scribe insisted that Ndubueze remained the candidate of the party in Imo North Senatorial District.

On the other hand, information emanating from the media team of the Ararume Campaign Organization confirmed that the erstwhile senator was the dully elected candidate of APC for the Okigwe Senatorial District in the 2027 National Assembly elections.

According to the release made available to media houses in Owerri, “Ararume remains the candidate of APC in the Imo North Senatorial District for 2027 general elections. This is a democratic dispensation, therefore all forms and elements of democracy, including fairness, justice, equity; freedom of election participation – to vote and to be voted for – as well as adherence to party’s guidelines, rules and regulations must be strictly followed”.

As it is, there are no clear indications as to who between the two candidates that emerged will eventually be cleared and recognized by INEC in its authentic list of candidates for the 2027 general elections.

A public affairs analyst, Dr Ogbonna Ubah, argued that both Uzodimma and Ndubueze are heavyweight in their rights. “I can tell you that both men heavyweight politicians who know their rights. Uzodimma knows what to do politically at any given time. He has been almost all his political fights since 2021.And this Okigwe Senatorial District battle may not also elude him.

“On the other side, Ararume fights to the finish. He is a man who is not afraid of political battles. He has been victorious in many and has also lost others. One thing about him is, even when he loses, his opponents surely understands he has done battle with a lion. If he is really interested in this senatorial war, it is to the peril of his opponents to take him for granted”.