The current governor of Imo State (Hope Uzodinma) is among the few APC Governors within the Southeast region. His emergence as the governor of Imo State came as a surprise to many people after the Supreme Court sacked Emeka Ihedioha....CONTINUE READING
However, many people don’t really know how Hope Uzodinma started his political journey in Imo State before he became the governor.
So, this article will discuss about how Hope Uzodinma came to limelight in the political system within Imo state.
According to some reports, Hope Uzodinma who had a ceremonial title (Onwa-Netiri Oha of Omuma in Oru LGA) was initially a PDP chieftain in Imo State and also a friend of the former Governor of Imo State (Achike Udenwa) until late 2002.
In 2003, Hope Uzodinma agreed to contest for the Governorship position in Imo state. Hope Uzodinma joined another political party known as Alliance for Democracy (AD) ahead of the gubernatorial election that held on April 2003 in the state. Nevertheless, he lost the election and in February 2004, he returned to PDP.
Also, during PDP primaries in December 2006 ahead of the governorship election in the state, Uzodinma equally contested but he lost the election. He was later appointed as a member of the PDP Board of Trustees.
On 9th January 2011, Hope Uzodinma won the PDP primary election for Imo West Senatorial race with 2,147 votes while the incumbent Senator (Osita Izunaso) came second with 891 votes. While on 5th February 2011, a Federal High court declared that Izunaso was the candidate of the party for the senatorial seat because Hope Uzodinma was not allegedly cleared by the PDP’s electoral panel headed by Orji Nwafor-Orizu.
After a series of Court Judgements, Uzodinma was allowed to contest for the senatorial position and he later won the election with 85,042 votes. Also, the Supreme Court later declared that Uzodinma was the valid candidate of PDP.
In 2018, Senator Hope Uzodinma joined APC with other PDP members in order to contest for the 2019 governorship position in Imo State. However, he took 4th position during the election but he was later declared as the winner by a judgement given by the supreme Court.