By Mercy Aikoye
A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rufus Omeire, has defended the re-election bid of the member representing Ideato Federal Constituency, Ikenga Ugochinyere, insisting that the lawmaker’s emergence was driven by the choice of the people and not any zoning arrangement.
Omeire, who is the senatorial candidate of the Action Peoples Party (APP), made the position known in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, while dismissing recent claims of an alleged zoning arrangement in the constituency.
He argued that the zoning argument was being deployed by Ugochinyere’s opponents to undermine the incumbent lawmaker, who chairs the House Committee on Downstream Petroleum.
According to him, “We don’t have zoning, and he can’t be a product of what does not exist.”
Omeire recalled that Ugochinyere defeated the then incumbent representative, who was from Ideato South, in the 2023 election, adding that the former occupant of the seat even challenged the outcome in court but failed to overturn it.
He further noted that previous occupants of the seat had come from different parts of the constituency, stressing that the political history of Ideato did not support claims of an established rotational arrangement.
The former lawmaker said the people of Ideato had chosen Ugochinyere because of his perceived capacity and performance, arguing that replacing representatives after only one term could undermine continuity and development.
“We are short-changing ourselves in this quest to always change our representatives after one tenure. We can never achieve any meaningful development at the federal level like this,” he said.
Omeire particularly cited the Ideato Bridge project as one of the major interventions he attributed to Ugochinyere, claiming that the lawmaker played a key role in securing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of N26 billion for the project.
He also challenged the Imo State Government to identify projects it had independently initiated in the federal constituency.
“Until they start the Amanator-Isiekenesi-Dikenafai Road and finish it, nobody can say they have done anything for us,” he said.
Omeire therefore urged those behind the agitation against Ugochinyere to discontinue what he described as attempts to create unnecessary tension in the constituency.
He described the opposition to the incumbent as a “kindergarten attack” against a representative he claimed enjoys the support of his constituents, warning that efforts to instigate an unfounded crisis could ultimately backfire on those behind it.
He maintained that the focus of the people should be on performance, continuity and development rather than an alleged zoning arrangement, insisting that Ideato had “finally gotten it right” with Ugochinyere.
