EDITOR’S NOTE
Why five Emekuku candidates appear in the order they do, why no campaign funds this series, and what the federation owes two of them, whatever November brings.
PLAIN-ENGLISH BRIEF
Sir Jude Ejiogu’s aides asked why his photograph followed Ochoudo Martin Agbaso’s. This note explains the order the series will keep: Sir Soribe Kelechi J., Ochoudo Martin Agbaso, Sir Jude Ejiogu, Hon. Amb. Philip Ejiogu, and Dr. Reginald Amadi. That order reflects each man’s record in the 2027 contests, not his worth. The note also states that no candidate funds this file, and it calls for Agbaso and Ejiogu to be given federal cabinet posts after the elections.
ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2026, aides to Sir Jude Ejiogu, KSM, telephoned this desk several times. They were unfailingly courteous, and their question was a fair one. In the opening installment of The Emekuku Political File, their principal’s photograph had appeared after that of Ochoudo Martin Agbaso, MFR. They wanted to know why. This note answers them in public, as the Standing Right of Reply requires, and sets out for every reader the order in which the five Emekuku candidates will appear across this series and on its covers.
One rule fixes the sequence. Each man’s place reflects the record he carries into the 2027 elections: years on the ballot, offices held, and the stage his candidacy has reached. The rule measures experience in electoral contests. It does not measure worth, and it predicts nothing about who should win.
Sir Soribe Kelechi J., KSJI, stands first. He has spent twenty-five years as a candidate in state and national elections and thirty-two in grassroots politics, and INEC’s final list names him as the APGA candidate for the Imo East Senate seat. His contest also comes first on the calendar. The National Assembly elections fall in January 2027, ten months before Imo chooses its governor in an off-cycle election. [1]
Ochoudo Martin Agbaso, MFR, is second. He contested the Imo East Senate seat in 1992 on the NRC platform and won it in 1998 on the DPN platform, served President Olusegun Obasanjo as special assistant on ecology from 2001 to 2004, and has run for governor before. In 2007, as the APGA candidate, he was leading the count when INEC canceled results in nine local government areas. Among the five, no one has spent longer at the national level or carried a governorship campaign further. [2, 3, 10]
Sir Jude Ejiogu, KSM, is third, and his place reflects the shape of his career, not its weight. His record inside Imo’s government is the longest of the five. He was Chief of Staff when Governor Rochas Okorocha named him Secretary to the State Government in 2015, and he has also served as Commissioner for Special Duties, Special Adviser on Internally Generated Revenue, Chairman of the Board of Internal Revenue, and Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission. Before public office, he built a banking career that ran from the international division of Texas Investment Bank in Houston to Progress Bank, where he managed the Enugu zone, and on to Hallmark Bank, where he was among the pioneer staff and served as acting managing director. He co-founded Armourguards Limited, an early force in modern industrial security in Nigeria, and for a period served as its executive chairman. Those who worked with him then recall a man who would leave Owerri for Lagos on the shortest notice to sit in meetings on how the country’s installations could be better protected, while about a hundred of his men kept surveillance and intelligence watch at Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the firm carried the same work into the Nigerian Ports Authority. He has also tested the governorship before: he sought the APC ticket for 2019 and polled 12,369 votes in the primary results the party announced in October 2018. Only the contest record places Agbaso ahead, because Agbaso stood first and went further, as his party’s nominee on the 2007 general-election ballot. [4, 5, 9]
Hon. Amb. Philip Ejiogu is fourth. He has already represented Owerri North in the Imo State House of Assembly, and he now enters the House of Representatives race as the NDC flag-bearer for the Owerri federal constituency. [6]
Dr. Reginald Amadi is fifth, and last only in sequence. This is his first run for governor. He comes to it after a business career in the United States, with a following built through philanthropy and through social and public-care programs for young people and women. A first campaign always carries the shortest record onto a ballot; it tells us nothing about how that campaign will end. [7]
The electorate will choose, and it should choose on the evidence. Each candidate’s public record and manifesto will be set out in this file on identical terms: documented strengths credited, documented weaknesses stated, and every claim tied to its source. No man will be praised for his town or excused for his party. Part 1 weighed the Church’s published histories against Akalovo’s oral record; each of these five careers will receive the same scrutiny, and each man may corroborate or contest what is published through the Standing Right of Reply. There is no bias in the order, and there will be none in the analysis.
This series is not supported, sponsored, or paid for by any candidate, party, or campaign. It is an act of civic responsibility by Africa Today News, New York, which has operated for eight years without advertising, grants, or outside backing. The Emekuku investigation has been carried out at considerable cost to the publication, and we ask, respectfully, that it be received in the spirit in which it is offered.
Imo has one Government House, and the voters will decide in November who occupies it. That decision should not settle what the federation owes Agbaso and Ejiogu, whose records earned national recognition long before this campaign began. This file therefore calls on the President, once the 2027 elections are over, to put that service to use. Agbaso belongs at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, where a man who has built businesses and organized parties for three decades understands both sides of the bargaining table. Ejiogu belongs at the Federal Ministry of Finance, where a career that ran from international credit through bank management to national industrial security would serve the treasury well. Should either man win Government House, Imo will have the first claim on him. The South-East has long complained of a federal cabinet that underuses its people, and two appointments would answer that complaint with names.
The calls of October 2 revealed one thing more. A campaign that notices the order of photographs within hours of publication, and responds through several aides in measured terms, is organized and watching. Sir Jude Ejiogu has built the machinery for this race. Should he win the APC ticket, he will be a strong match for Agbaso, who is by any fair count among the most formidable figures in the contest for Government House. Material responses from any of the five will be published with the date of receipt.
EVIDENCE DOCKET
ESTABLISHED INEC’s final Senate list [1]; Agbaso’s 1992 Senate run, 1998 Senate victory, presidential post, and 2007 record [2, 3, 10]; Ejiogu’s banking career, state offices, 2019 primary bid, and standing as an APC prospect [4, 5, 8, 9]; Philip Ejiogu’s Assembly record and NDC ticket [6]; Amadi’s entry into the APC race [7].
SUPPLIED TO THIS DESK Sir Soribe’s years as a candidate and in grassroots politics; Armourguards’ airport and ports deployments, as recalled by people who worked with Sir Jude Ejiogu.
OPEN Each candidate’s manifesto, to be examined on the same terms in his dedicated series.
THE EVIDENCE DOCKET · FULL RECORD
The full Evidence Docket logs every claim in this note against its source, candidate by candidate, and marks each one as established, supplied, or open. Four pages, with its own source register and reply address.
↓ Download the Evidence Docket (PDF, 4 pages)
Emekuku_Evidence_Docket.pdf
STANDING RIGHT OF REPLY
Each of the five candidates, and the families and institutions named in Part 1, may submit a reply, correction, or supporting record to Africa Today News, New York, by email. Material responses are published with the date of receipt, and every correction states the evidence behind it.
Email [email protected]
Web www.africatodaynewsnewyork.com
Source Register
[1] Independent National Electoral Commission. (2026, September). 2027 Senate final list of candidates. Imo East: Soribe Kelechi J., APGA. https://www.inecnigeria.org/documents/2027%20SENATE%20FINAL%20LIST%20OF%20CANDIDATES.pdf
[2] TheCable. (2026, July 29). Martin Agbaso declares 2027 Imo governorship bid, says “mandate delayed, not denied.” https://www.thecable.ng/martin-agbaso-declares-2027-imo-governorship-bid-says-mandate-delayed-not-denied/
[3] Vanguard. (2017, April 5). Chief Martin Agbaso MFR: A journey on courage and leadership. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/04/chief-martin-agbaso-mfr-a-journey-on-courage-and-leadership/
[4] Imo Trumpeta. Garlands for Sir Jude Chika Ejiogu, as ex-SSG marks birthday. Biographical profile: education, banking career, Armourguards Limited, and state offices. https://www.imotrumpeta.com/?p=29996
[5] Channels Television. (2015, June 2). Governor Okorocha dissolves cabinet, appoints new SSG, others. https://www.channelstv.com/2015/06/02/governor-okorocha-dissolves-cabinet-appoints-new-ssg-others/
[6] Hon. Amb. Philip Ejiogu. Official website, record as member for Owerri North, Imo State House of Assembly; and Imo NDC notice unveiling him as Owerri Federal Constituency House of Representatives flag-bearer (2026). https://philipejiogu.com/
[7] The Authority. (2026, June 13). 2027: Reginald Amadi joins Imo gubernatorial race. https://authorityngr.com/2026/06/13/2027-reginald-amadi-joins-imo-gubernatorial-race/
[8] Hallmark News. (2026, March 9). Who picks the Imo 2027 APC governorship ticket? https://hallmarknews.com/who-picks-the-imo-2027-apc-governorship-ticket/
[9] Daily Trust. (2018, October 2). 2019: Controversy as Uzodinma, Nwosu claims victory in Imo APC governorship primaries. https://dailytrust.com/2019-controversy-as-uzodinma-nwosu-claims-victory-in-imo-apc-governorship-primaries/
[10] Vanguard. (2021, April 5). Chief Martin Agbaso: 62 cheers for Ochoudo. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/04/chief-martin-agbaso-62-cheers-for-ochoudo/
NEXT · VOLUME I, PART 2
Soribe Kelechi J.: The Senate File
Research, concept and editorial direction: Prof. MarkAnthony Nze
