Okorocha Unveils Modalities To Select Sucessor.

. Discards Zoning.
BY GRACE IGWEANYI

ROCHAS

Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha at the weekend said zoning will not be a factor in selecting his successor, just as he announced that in May, this year, he will unveil those likely to succeed him from his All Progressive Congress (APC) for public scrutiny.

 Okorocha who spoke to newsmen in Owerri at the weekend said gone are the days zoning constitute a hindrance to elect the governor of the State, pointing out that he intends to avoid mistakes made by his predecessors.

 Former Governor Achike Udenwa was known not to have groomed a successor from his political party, the PDP when he held sway as governor from 1999 to 2007

  He was forced to hand over to Ikedi Ohakim, candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA)after a fierce political bickering among various contenders in his party  

Apparently to avoid the same mistake by Udenwa, Okorocha said he will unveil at least four persons from each of the three geo political zones including a woman for public scrutiny.

According to him, the idea is to enable the public and the media to beam their focus on the possible candidates that may emerge as the APC governorship candidate before the 2019 general election.

The Governor said what should be paramount on the minds of the people is that a credible candidate is selected by the All Progressive Congress, APC irrespective of which zone he or she comes from.

Zoning has been a contentious issue in Imo State. If Okorocha quits at the end of his tenure in 2019, his Orlu Zone (Imo West Senatorial District) would have produced the State governor for 16 years.

Imo East Senatorial District (Owerri Zone) is yet to produce Imo State governor since 1999, while Imo North senatorial district (Okigwe Zone) produced Ikedi Ohakim who governed for four years.