Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has declared that there isn’t a Rainbow Coalition Movement in the state.
Mr Uzodimma insisted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would win the 2027 elections throughout all elective positions in the state.
The governor made the remarks on Tuesday through the flag-off of the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement in Imo State and the distribution of marketing campaign autos to the group in Owerri, the state capital.
The PBAT Door-to-Door Movement is a help group mobilising for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The occasion was broadcast dwell on Channels TV which was monitored by PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Uzodimma, who handed the marketing campaign autos to the group, advised them that they need to stay members of the APC and work solely for the victory of Mr Tinubu and all candidates of the social gathering in the subsequent 12 months’s common election.
“The PBAT Door-to-Door Movement, listen to me,” he started.
“You’re members of the APC. If I see you work outside the APC, I’ll collect the vehicles from you,” the governor warned.
“You’re empowered to work for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC. There’s no rainbow coalition in Imo State.”
Mr Uzodimma boasted that he doesn’t want the Rainbow Coalition Movement to win the election for Mr Tinubu in Imo, arguing that the president would win the state with “organic votes” in the 2027 election.
The governor maintained that the APC was the “only recognised” political social gathering in the state and urged supporters to vote for the social gathering’s candidates throughout all ranges in the 2027 common elections.
Rainbow Coalition Movement controversy
Mr Uzodimma and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, have been in a face-off over the Rainbow Coalition Movement.
Mr Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, runs the Rainbow Coalition, a multi-party political association, to help President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.
READ ALSO: Wike’s Rainbow Coalition risk to democracy & PDP faction
The All Progressives Congress governors, underneath the aegis of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), have vehemently opposed the coalition, describing it as a political association that would undermine the social gathering and its candidates forward of the 2027 elections.
The PGF is chaired by Mr Uzodimma, who has picked the APC’s ticket for Imo West District although his tenure as governor will elapse in January 2028, six months after the subsequent Senate would have been inaugurated in June 2027.
Mr Wike is formally a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however he works underneath the APC-led authorities.
The FCT minister’s place on the Rainbow Coalition Movement has been that the motion would work solely for the re-election of Mr Tinubu whereas his social gathering, the PDP, would push to win different elective workplaces.
But Mr Uzodimma and different APC governors insist that such an association would work in opposition to the election of different APC candidates.
On his half, Mr Wike claimed Mr Uzodimma, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State and their Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun, have been preventing the Rainbow Coalition Movement for “selfish reasons.”
Mr Wike burdened that the governors imagine that the coalition would deprive them of the ability to safe victory for his or her chosen APC senatorial and House of Representatives candidates.
The minister stated some politicians, together with incumbent federal lawmakers, secured PDP senatorial and House of Representatives tickets after the governors allegedly denied them APC tickets.
He particularly stated the governors have been jittery that the politicians who secured PDP tickets after dropping APC tickets may work in opposition to their political pursuits in the event that they win in the final election.
Mr Wike then accused Mr Uzodimma of opposing the coalition primarily due to his perception that it may jeopardise his ambition to grow to be Senate President.
The FCT minister additionally declared that he wouldn’t help Mr Uzodimma’s ambition to grow to be the nation’s Senate president.
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