What is happening in Owerri Zone today is not a crisis. It is an implosion foretold. And it was foretold precisely because the project was built on ego, not equity; on titles, not unity.
How can a zone that claims to be marginalized build its emancipation around five parallel warlords? Today we have Imo Harmony Project (IHP), Owerri Zone Political Leadership Forum (OZOPOLF), Owerri Zone Leaders of Thought, and now the latest fraudulent mutation — Owerri Zone United. Five groups, one ambition, zero coherence.
But the deeper disease is not the number of groups. It is the infantile supremacy battle of their leaders. We now have an entire comic lexicon of self-awarded titles: "Apex Leader" of Owerri Zone, "Operational Leader" of Owerri Zone, "Political Ambassador" of Owerri Zone, "Ekwedasieke" of Owerri Zone. This is not leadership. This is chieftaincy of emptiness. And it is why Governor Hope Uzodimma had to publicly scold them to go home and put their house in order.
THE COURTESY CALL THEATRE
The rivalry stopped being whispered in March 2025. The IHP, dominated by the Emekuku axis, wrote to Government House unilaterally seeking audience. Governor Uzodimma, to his credit, rejected it — because he knew it did not represent Owerri Zone.
He ordered them to go and gather others. When they returned on March 10, 2025, IHP hijacked the microphone. Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho spoke. Dr. Kema Chikwe spoke. Another IHP fellow spoke. Chief Charls Amadi — Chalvon — leader of OZOPOLF, did not utter a word.
Five months later, on August 20, 2025, the revenge mission happened. This time Chalvon did all the talking, invited Chief Henry Njoku to give vote of thanks and attempted to close the meeting. The Governor had to intervene to allow Ihenacho to speak. Anyone with eyes saw it: This was not unity. It was two cartels fighting for who will be the gatekeeper to Uzodimma.
A few days later, OZOPOLF announced a new child: Owerri Zone Leaders of Thought. Same people, same address — Amadi's residence. Same Secretary-General, Barr. Kingsley Ononuju, who signs for both groups. Then suddenly, another transmutation: Owerri Zone United. An "umbrella body" whose umbrella only covers one house in Owerri. Secretary changed from Ononuju to Shah Azu Okorie — but Ononuju remains Publicity Secretary. The Secretary of IHP, Shah Okorie, is now Secretary of the rival umbrella that IHP leader Ihenacho has never attended.
This is not unity. It is political money laundering. The rebranding of a single Amadi-led faction to create an illusion of consensus.
When that faction traveled to Okigwe on August 14, 2026 to "solicit support", Okigwe leaders looked at each other in confusion. No single man from Mbaise. No one from Ngor-Okpala. A delegation of Owerri that excluded Owerri. It was rightly called a fiasco.
Then the final mask fell: Owerri Zone United declared APC as the SOLE vehicle for producing the next governor. IHP rejected it immediately — and rightly so. The original idea was a non-partisan Owerri agenda across party lines. The APC-or-nothing declaration has now been denounced across the zone. The chickens have come home to roost.
THE LOGICAL PARADOX: THE EMEKUKU CABAL
And here is the radical truth no one wants to say loudly: In both factions — the provocateur and the resistor — the ghost at the centre is the dreaded EMEKUKU CABAL.
Let us be logical. Who dominates the leadership of IHP? The Emekuku axis. Who dominates the list of governorship aspirants from Owerri for the November 2027 off-season election? The same Emekuku axis.
Their logic is crude and consistent: It must be us, or nothing. If Chalvon's APC formula succeeds, the Emekuku production line will be relegated. Therefore, the project must be aborted. It is sabotage as strategy.
This is not new. This is their political DNA.
In 2011, when the same cabal realized it could not produce governor directly, what did it do? It donated Owerri's slot to Orlu. Martin Agbaso, a leading face of the cabal, invited Rochas Okorocha — an Orlu man — to take the APGA ticket he controlled. With that ticket, Okorocha became governor under controversial circumstances.
The cabal — including a highly revered Catholic clergy — extracted a promise that Okorocha would hand over to them in 2015. He not only reneged, he humiliated and sacked his deputy from their fold. The cabal that facilitated the deployment of the military to "supervise" the May 6, 2011 supplementary election that birthed Okorocha was left in the cold.
Today, Orlu mocks Owerri with brutal logic: Even if Uzodimma does eight years, Orlu has only done 16 years, not 24 — because the eight years of Okorocha was an Owerri donation to Orlu that Orlu never begged for. Sarcastic, but morally devastating.
Go further back. Who masterminded the split of Imo PDP into Onongono and Abuja groups when PDP was emperor from 1999-2019? The same cabal. And what did it do while in power? It grabbed everything in Owerri Zone. Two ministers. An Ambassador. Special Adviser. Every juicy post.
The philosophy is simple: Owerri Zone is Emekuku, and Emekuku is Owerri Zone.
Today the rest of Owerri Zone is even willing to make a historic sacrifice — to cede 2028-2032 to Okigwe to complete its eight years and finally lay the ghost of equity to rest. This is statesmanship. But the cabal says NO DICE. For them, equity means "Emekuku equity."
Pundits are clear. Owerri Zone has three options:
Option One: Abandon zoning and allow competence from any zone. Dead on arrival. Owerri cannot decide for Okigwe and Orlu.
Option Two: The radical, logical, win-win path. Allow Okigwe to take 2027-2031 to complete its cycle. Use those four years to purge Owerri politics of the old warlords, build genuine unity among a younger generation through real consultation with Okigwe and Orlu, not through bankrupt proclamations, endorsements and backroom arrangements at a single residence in Owerri.
Option Three: Continue this circus and produce an Owerri stooge — a governor geographically from Owerri but politically a third term for Orlu. As our own sons warned: "After waiting for decades for equity, surely our ambition cannot be to replace an Orlu governor with an Owerri-born proxy?" This option is dangerous and suicidal.
Option Two makes Owerri the moral capital of Imo. It turns us from perpetual complainants to sacrificial architects of Imo harmony. And it guarantees that in 2031, Owerri takes over unchallenged, with the full moral weight of the state behind it.
A FINAL WORD TO GOVERNOR UZODIMMA
Your Excellency, the APC exclusivity that Chalvon's group is selling is a trap for you. The APC you lead is strong enough to win 2027 without this divisive formula. The entire Imo people, not just APC members, are witnesses to your performance.
If this formula can cause this much acrimony within Owerri Zone alone, imagine the poison it will inject into Imo State.
Your predecessors, Achike Udenwa and Rochas Okorocha, tried party-based succession. They failed, and those same choristers abandoned them. The refusal of Owerri leaders to heed your simple advice to be united on one page is already a letdown. It is time to look beyond the Emekuku Cabal and the Chalvon circus.
Owerri Zone does not need more groups. It needs truth. And the truth is that until the Emekuku grab-grab mentality is defeated, Owerri will remain (un)united — and the governorship will remain a mirage.
Barrister Onyeikegbulem Writes From Avuvu in Ikeduru L.G.A
What does Owerri need gov of Imo state for?
Govs Rochas Okorocha and Hope Uzodinma practically built all their government's development projects in Owerri zone, except the University Okorocha built in his hometown. Owerri has expanded in urbanisation to include nearly all the once rural local government areas in Owerri zone. Orlu and Okigwe towns have been shrinking due to absence of government institutions and infrastructures. The government institutions and social infrastructures clustered in Owerri zone led to the rapid development and expansion of Owerri.
Yes, Hope Uzodinma is on another level. Extra vindictive. Uzodinma even demolishes or closes down government development institutions and infrastructures in the headquarters of his senatorial district because of grudges he has been having against the former gov from the place. In 7 years, Hope Uzodinma did not locate one useful development project in the town, except one government house annex which employs one gateman.
“Justice Has Finally Prevailed” — Rochas Okorocha Celebrates After Court Ruling Against Uzodimma
Former Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has expressed satisfaction with a reported Federal High Court judgment concerning the APC senatorial ticket for Imo West.
Reacting to the ruling, Okorocha praised the Nigerian judiciary, declaring that justice had finally prevailed. He also recalled a past controversy involving election results, alleging that someone who came fourth was elevated to the top position after more than 300 results were written.
Okorocha further remarked that the presidency was tired of what he described as “nonsense,” adding another political dimension to the ongoing dispute involving Governor Hope Uzodimma and the Imo West senatorial seat.
The judgment reportedly directs INEC to publish Okorocha’s name as the APC candidate and orders Uzodimma to stop presenting himself as the party’s candidate for the district.
What justice. You were in Senate for four years but refused to open a constituency office in Orlu, the headquarters of your senatorial district.
You wanted to claim a university you built with IMSG funds in your Ideato South LGA.
Wait and see, in the absence of Hope Uzodinma contesting for Senate, true and fair election will be held for Orlu senatorial district seat.
Angelfrost: Owerri and Asaba need to explain what is making rent and cost of living so high there, when they lack industries and booming business hubs.
That of Owerri is from greed, primitive greed of Owerri people who refused location of even one government development project outside Owerri in Imo state before 1999.
Owerri even closed a campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education in Orlu and took it back to Owerri. They want rent. They eat from rents from students. Rest of Imo state outside Owerri zone remain stagnant.
Owerri does not share culture or dialect with either Orlu or Okigwe in Imo state. Owerri share culture with Ikwerre in Rivers state, hence Owerri resist any extension of government development institutions for Imo state to anywhere outside Owerri district.
Migration from Orlu and Okigwe zones into Owerri is the cause.
Before 1999, Owerri got FUTO, POLYNEKEDE, IMSU, FEDERAL COLLEGE OF LANDS, AIFCE, all federal housing estates, all federal military installations, all federal and state ministries and paratarals jampacked in Owerri for rents to Owerri people.
The present governor of Imo worsened every thing as he maliciously located all his government's development projects in Owerri zone, except a uni and Polytechnic in his Omuma hometown in Orueast LGA.
Imo that established a university teaching hospital in 2002, but successive state govs stifle the hospital because it's not located in the state capital.
Traditional title from Eze Imo who the Imo State governor refused to locate even one government development project in the Eze's Orlu local government area in 7 years, and gov even closed or demolished existing government establishments in the local government area, because of gov's bile against a former gov of the state from the Eze's local govt area.
Olofofo247ng: Nigerian States And Thier Expenses On Education In Q1 2026
Imo last.
Imo govt is rather building Owerri to designer's delight to catch up to Dubai level. Owerri High rise 11 storey building, flyovers Owerri, Digital city Owerri, two bus parks in Owerri perhaps for luxury buses that move from Owerri to Owerri; balloon drainage Owerri, Robotic surgery and CT scan/MRI equipment Owerri. Define Owerri mania in Imo govt house. You wonder which university taught the gov that every important government establishment must be located in Owerri state capital.
Ttalk: This is an absurdity. State government marrying wives for its people, is that part of empowerment or subsidy. Aminda should throw more light of this and let us know if it's part of Atiku"s manifesto
emkz: They should tell the public who they want to unite behind.
Beyond unseating Tinubu, what plans do they have for Nigeria?
Will they bring back subsidy? Will they bring back dual exchange rate? Will they bring back those BDCs that operated without licenses? Will they cancel the coastal highway? Will they cancel credit corp? Will they well NNPC? Will they return Malami's properties to him? One of them said he would have created buffers. Where will he get the funds?
Opposition cannot be talking of unseating Tinubu without alternative plans.
You are already afraid. The level of well-being of an average citizen of a country is the measure of success for the apex political leadership of the country It's not reform this or that, or build this or that by the apex political leader.
Lithiumite: And who is getting the 5.6m votes? Atiku without pdp or obi that doesn't even know where the north is situated on the map.
As for osun,adeleke will win though i support apc and tinubu will win osun in 27......obj lost the entire sw in 99 but swept it in 03.....we are on ground and we know wetin they xup.....no matter the votes tge SE can give obi,the SW will give tinubu more.
Obi fluke of 23 can never be allowed to happen in 27, he is fast loosing grip of the SS and tinubu is working overdrive in that region,obi will win SE but 25% is all tinubu needs and he is poised to get it.
Atiku cannot win any state in the south which technically will be his greatest undoing while apc will win states in the north and where they loose,they will come a close 2nd,atiku still isn't so popular in the NW and has never been......NE,borno and yobe are apc and taraba just switched and thats one state the ruling party is always 100% certain to deliver.....obi isn't even in the top 2 as far as the north is concerned and that will also work against him.
Obi will not be ALLOWED? Bolded. But who do you Balabablu people believe you are?
AMINDA: APC-commisioned spies bearing Southeastern names have been activated to sell despair and apathy in the South so Tinubu can conveniently rig (Proud Ibadan Boy but his name is Uche). Expect more of these as the days go by. Tinubu is having a hard-time winning his own ancestral state which Atiku won in 2023 by the way, but we are expected to believe that Tinubu has won the election. Where will his votes come from outside of few states in the Southwest? There will be no 5.6m Northern votes waiting for him to come and collect this time. Muslim-muslim ticket or not.
Not convinced that you read the article before your comment.
So the Lagos beggars could not see even corn and maize prescribed by Tilumbu to eat anymore? Anyhow, the beggars shall still queue up to vote Tilumbu in 2027. What ethnoreligious bigotry has brought to Nigeria. Problem is that they rope in all others in one Nigeria, the others who want progress in different countries out of Nigeria.
Nigeria immigration must restore the application fees paid by applicants who were not attended to in time.
Why would money paid by an applicant be deemed expired after some time? Does money expire? Ask the applicant to do fresh application instead of taking the applicants money in disguise.
Politics › Re: 2027: Owerri Zone (un)united And The Emekuku Cabal by Amah70: 12:46am
