Recently a video of the 2022 PDP primaries for Igbo-Etiti/ Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency ticket held at Ogbede, Igbo-Etiti LGA headquarters was exhumed and shared on many social media platforms by Salem Ezeorah with the mischievous tag "the day Dr. Martins Oke was rejected by everybody. The timing and motive of the sharer or peddler is very obvious and political.
It would be recalled that the same video which contained the expected protests by some Uzo Uwani LGA people, who felt that it was the turn of their people to grab the ticket was recorded and peddled immediately after Dr. Oke won the party ticket.
Oke a ranking member of House of Representatives fought hard to win his reelection ticket. It didn't come easy and he didn't stop anyone from contesting.
At the last count before the primaries, Uzo Uwani LGA had over 20 aspirants for the ticket, but the PDP leaders, members and delegates saw Dr. Oke as the best among the equals.
After the primaries, none of the aspirants from Uzo Uwani LGA went to court to challenge the outcome. Those who tried were prevailed upon and they listened. They behaved like loyal party members and remained committed to the party.
None of them or their supporters recorded the minor protests by their people at the venue of the primaries, talkmore of peddling it anywhere before or after the election.
It was the people of Igbo-Etiti LGA precisely Aku people, Dr. Oke's kinsmen that recorded it and have been peddling it, even after the general elections just for cheap political gain that is elusive.
It goes a long way to show how petty, envious, conspiratorial and vindictive some characters who are greatest beneficiaries of the PDP governments in Enugu state and masqueraded as PDP stakeholders in the day and Labour Party stakeholders in the night before last general elections have become.
Unfortunately for them, their evil plans and sabotage against the PDP led government that made them politically in the elections didn't give their new bride, Bar. Chijioke Edeoga of Labour Party victory in the governorship election.
Shamelessly, they have been running from pillar to post since after elections trying to explain and exonerate themselves from their obvious and treacherous roles against PDP in the elections in their wards and polling units.
Playing a written script to please his pay masters, who saw Dr. Oke as a stumbling block in their desperations for relevance in the incoming administration of Dr. Peter Mbah in the state, Salem Ezeorah exhumed the video and peddled it to discredit Dr. Oke before Mbah. What a cheap way to engage in blackmail for undue recognition.
With what happened in Aku in the last general elections where tribalism, sentiments, betrayals, treachery and conspiracies against Dr. Oke and the PDP by some PDP stakeholders and members
which led to Aku losing the House of Representatives seat to an unknown political neophyte, who never came to Aku or go anywhere to canvass for votes is something of a shame that will hunt Aku community politically for a longtime to come.
History will not be kind to all those who out of clannishness, envy and sadism were responsible for the political miscalculations and gaffe that returned Aku to political slavery again.
Not even the last minute deal/ meeting between some Aku PDP stakeholders and the Nwodos to stop Dr. Oke by all means and clear way for another great Aku son and APC candidate for Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency, Mr. Samuel Ekwueme could earn Aku the seat at last.
For Salem Ezeorah that exhumed, posted and tagged the video, "the day everybody rejected Dr. Martins Oke, how come that the same Uzo-Uwani people that protested during the primaries garnered more votes for Dr. Oke than even Aku and Igbo-Etiti people? What does that say about the political maturity, sagacity and loyalty of the Uzo-Uwani LGA people? The same Uzo-Uwani LGA people delivered victory for the PDP in the governorship election, but Igbo-Etiti LGA people who have benefitted more from PDP failed to deliver in the election, due to obvious conspiracy and betrayal by some PDP stakeholders, who were jealous of Dr. Oke and hobnobbing with Nwodos and Edeoga, hoping that Edeoga will win governorship election.
That Dr. Oke was conspired against by some PDP stakeholders especially in Aku to lose reelection does not mean that he is out and down politically. Dr. Oke is no longer playing politics to make name. He has made name, touched lives and remained a political giant not only in Aku, Igbo-Etiti, Enugu, but in Nigeria. He has a name and identity that can never be wiped out in the political history of the country.
He may not be best of leaders, depending on the parameters one chooses, he is not the worst of it. His human empowerment in Aku, Igbo-Etiti and across Enugu state will outlive him.
Today Dr. Oke remains a political giant. God and time and not human beings like Salem Ezeorah and his paymasters will tell what the future has for Dr. Oke politically.
