By Okey Maduforo Awka.
The November 8th gubernatorial election in Anambra state is currently taking a religious dimension following the discovery that four major candidates for the position are Roman Catholics a development that appears to be unsettling the tarrian.
This is coming as the duo of the labor party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA trade words over the alleged cold war between Governor Charles Soludo and the two major churches ; Anglican and Catholic.
Findings indicates that Governor Charles Soludo is a Roman Catholic as well as Sir Paul Chukwuma of the Young Democratic Party YPP, Chief George Moghalu of the Labor Party and Mr Paul Nwosu of the African Democratic Congress ADC.
Against this development, the church appears to considering which of it’s faithfuls would have their endorsement a situation that had brought to the fore the fate of those candidates.
But the Director General of the labor party and George Moghalu Campaign Council Arch Okey Chukwuogo has dismissed the chances of Soludo getting the support of both the Catholic and Anglican churches contending that the governor’s disposition to the clerics needs much to be desired .
“I am not worried about religious politics in Anambra state and I don’t want to go into when it started”
“But the truth remains that the Roman Catholics are sentimental about their members who are running for the governorship election and Anglicans are going to be sentimental when members of their church is going to run ”
“Now I don’t know of any Anglican who is running and there four candidates that I know who are Roman Catholics”
“We have George Moghalu, we have Prof Charles Soludo we have also Sir Paul Chukwuma and John Nwosu and all of them have Anglican running mates ”
“Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu the last that I remembered is an Evangelist and it is being alleged that he has his own church”
“If that is the case he is neither a Roman Catholic nor an Anglican though when when his first wife died , I remember going for that burial I remember Anglican Bishop presided ”
“His running mate was an Anglican and married a Roman Catholic that is the situation about these five candidates ” he said.
Chukwuogo took a swipe on what he called the no love lost between Soludo and the clerics adding that he is not in the good books of even the Traditionalists .
“Prof Charles Soludo is not in the good books of any church whatsoever nor is he in the good books of Traditionalists ”
“And when you add the facts that his men use pistle to collect revenue which they use to damage peoples legs and when you add that you can see what I mean”
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“Soludo has a problem with the church and they are not happy with him because of his burial laws and the church is not particularly happy about it”
“I don’t know how he arrived at that law but he said that it was not him that made that law but his predesassor and I don’t know if it passed through the churches and if you want to make such laws you pass it though the churches for them to make imputs”
“But there are things in that law people will naturally object to”
“Amongst those that the Roman Catholics has sentiments for they will naturally chose one candidate”
” I know that the members listen to their Rev Fathers and I am an Anglican and the Anglicans are running mates so it is up to the church to chose “he said.
But the Chief of staff to Soludo Chief Earnest Ezeajughi described Chukwuogo’s analogy and allegations as baseless insisting that Soludo enjoys robust and very cordial relationship with all the churches in Anambra state.
“When people condescend so low as linking religion with the good governance of Anambra state I get amazed with that ”
“When you talk about this matter, Chukwuogo knows that the originator of religious politics is sitting very close to him and that was a poisoned chalice that was occastrated by his cotravelers”
“Governor Charles Soludo is the governor of Anambra state and all the projects that he embarked on a s executed is not meant for any church denomination or for Traditionalists alone but for the people of Anambra state and those resident here ”
Ezeajughi further contended that bringing church issues makes the contest for the gubernatorial position of Anambra state too pedestal”
“When we talk about taking Anambra state to the next level we should look at the bigger picture and not to begin to meddle into church matters and for us here in APGA we are more concerned about making Anambra the first choice destination point in terms of socioeconomic development ”
“We are yet to hear from the church leaders to speak on the so called problems between them and the Governor and the last time we checked there are no such thing at all and the Labor Party is only trying to shake the table just to gain the elusive relevance that they have been searching for ”
Reacting to the burial laws Ezeajughi noted that the essence of the law was to regulate unnecessary expenses people go into in order to bury their relatives and some people go as far as selling landed properties and going to borrow money when while that relative was alive such huge sums of money was not spent on him or her for treatment ‘ he said.
Ezeajughi urged the public and Anambra electorates to discountenance what he called spurious allegations and continue to support Governor Charles Soludo in the coming election.
