Democratic Party (PDP) el-ders in Imo State may have reached out to
President Goodluck Jonathan to in-fluence the support of Sena-tor
Ifeanyi Araraume for the flag bearer of the party, Emeka Ihedioha.
Daily Sun reports that worried by the controversy that trailed the
emergence of Ihedioha as the PDP's gover-norship candidate in the
state, the elders resolved to ensure that President Goodluck Jona-than
intervenes in the situa-tion.
A source on condition of anonymity told Daily Sun that the elders
wanted President Jonathan to prevail on Senator Ifeanyi Araraume to
support Ihedioha by publicly raising his hands and asking his
sup-porters to cease their hostility and rejection of the deputy
speaker of House of Repre-sentatives.
The elders, it was gathered, were worried that except Ara-raume
supports Ihedioha, the PDP would not be able to upstage the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
A top PDP national officer, Daily Sun learnt, was man-dated to book an
appointment with the president for the el-ders to meet with him for
the purpose of persuading Ara-raume to support Ihedioha for PDP's
victory in Imo State.
The source added that since it was obvious that Ihedioha could not win
the Imo gov-ernorship without Araraume, PDP did not want to further
lose control by ignoring the former senator.
Recently, after electing Chief Emmanuel Iwuan-yanwu as their chairman
and Mr. Peter Mgbenwelu as secretary, the elders had ex-pressed worry
that since the Araraume factor could not be wished away, there was
need to convince him to support Ihedioha.
It was gathered that the el-ders' dilemma stemmed from field reports
that Araraume still enjoyed a large following in the state.
However, Daily Sun learnt that the feeling among the el-ders was that
since Ihedioha had been presented with the flag and until the
pronounce-ment by the courts, Araraume should be prevailed upon to
appeal to his supporters and Imo people to support the deputy speaker.
But the development came even as Araraume campaign organization
declared recent-ly that the only way to true reconciliation was for
PDP to hand over the governorship ticket won by Araraume on December
8, 2014 to him.
--TheSun
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