Not long ago, David Mbamara—a former captain in the Nigerian Army and a 2023 Labour Party gubernatorial candidate for Imo State—co-founded the Owerri Zone Peoples Mandate (OZPM). While speaking with an interviewer, he questioned the veracity of various groups that claimed to represent the Owerri Zone.
As reported by THE SUN, he addressed the claims of conflict readiness made by Trinity OPOCA, headed by Willie Amadi. Mbamara was sceptical about Amadi's tactics and the viability of his ideas. It was he who pointed out that Amadi would never win over the people of Orlu zone to his gubernatorial campaign if he went after leaders there, especially venerated traditional figures, for issues that had nothing to do with them.
He said Amadi's threats wouldn't work and pointed out that Amadi and his followers did nothing to stop the abuse of their community while Rochas Okorocha was in office. Mbamara recalled how, on what she perceived as baseless accusations, Okorocha removed Jude Agbaso and Eze Madumere, two bright young men, from their positions as deputy governors. A third individual, Callistus Ekenze, was also mentioned; Okorocha had promised Ekenze the position of deputy governor, but Ekenze was used against Madumere, his own brother.
The Eke-Ukwu Owerri market was a site of great ancestral significance to Amadi, but Mbamara pointed out that Amadi did nothing when Okorocha hired youths from the Orlu zone to destroy it. When Rochas dealt with our people, where were guys like Willie Amadi who make false threats? When Okorocha was deputy governor, he ruined the careers of two of our brightest young men. Here I am referring to Eze Madumere and Jude Agbaso.
On false accusations, he shamed them into leaving office. Our actions? In chapter three, "Callistus Ekenze," he plots to use his brother Madumere as a pawn after promising to make him deputy governor. What was the final outcome? Where was Willie Amadi when Rochas Okorocha destroyed his ancestral Eke-Ukwu Owerri market using youths from the Orlu zone? Now he's threatening to employ Owerri youths to battle Orlu elders.
Mbamara cautioned that if violence broke out and property was damaged, the people of Owerri would be the ones to bear the brunt of the problem because the Orlu would go back to their home town as soon as the fighting stopped. Instead of making empty threats, he told his followers to deal with the problems they were really facing.