Gov. Uzodimma Drops Deputy, Picks Nnedinma Ekomaru As Running Mate For Second Term.

Hope, Nnedinma, Placid.

The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma may have had a serious brain storming with the current political issues in the state where women a seriously being sidelined politically and had decided to jettison his current deputy Governor, Professor Placid Njoku and picked a female for the completion of his remaining four years in office.

“Precious Eze’s Blog” reports that the Governor has picked female lawyer, Barr. Nnedinma Ekomaru, as his running mate for the 2023 governorship election in the State. 

According to available information, Uzodimma had submitted the name of the Commissioner for Works, Engr. Ralph Nwosu, as the placeholder for the office of his deputy, which left room for lobbying and speculations for the slot, but Barr. Ekomaru’s name was formally submitted to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja as Uzodimma’s running mate. 

Barr. Ekomaru is married to a senior lawyer, Chief Chukwuma Ekomaru, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and they are from Umunoha community in Mbaitoli local government area of the State and has practiced for over 20 years as a lawyer, though she is an admin staff of the Alvan Ikoku University of Education.

The new Deputy Governor candidate.

Among the things that pressurized the Governor into picking a women as his running mate is the fact that the fact that there is no female member in the incoming Imo State House of Assembly, meaning that when Committees are constituted, the committee on Women affairs would be chaired by a male member of the house. 

Before now though, some women groups had called on the governor to pick a woman as his running mate, when it became evident he wasn’t going to run with his current deputy, whose crime this platform will report later, that his choice of Mrs. Ekomaru, who had never been a politician, drove shock into onlookers, though her husband, Chief Chukwuma Ekomaru is a political son of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and had attempted to govern the state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but didn’t win the primary election.