The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Imo state governor Rochas Okorocha.

  • Democracy and duress

    It’s one thing to be declared the winner of an election; it’s another thing to be given a certificate of return to reinforce the declaration. Some election candidates who were declared winners don’t understand this. They think the declaration should be enough to get the certificate.

    It is interesting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is interested in how election winners were declared winners. Take the case of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared winner of the Imo West Senatorial District election held on February 23. When the Returning Officer, Prof Innocent Ibeawuchi, alleged that he was forced to declare Okorocha the winner of the poll, the allegation changed the situation.

    Ibeawuchi had told reporters that he was held hostage from 7pm on February 24 till 11am the following day.  He was quoted as saying:  “I was compelled to announce the result which was inconclusive. I am a man of integrity and it is not true that the governor slapped me but I was held hostage by agents working for him. I was manhandled and I thank God I came back alive.”

    Of course, the professor’s claim that he had declared Okorocha winner “under duress” calls into question how the governor won the senatorial election. It is striking that there are others like Okorocha whose election victories are doubtful because the returning officers involved were allegedly forced to declare them winners.

    INEC’s National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, said the commission had received similar reports concerning the National Assembly poll in Oju/Obi Federal Constituency in Benue State, as well as the House of Assembly elections in Niger and Akwa Ibom states.

    He told reporters in Makurdi on March 22: “The commission has not given a certificate of return to anyone from Obi/Oju, the same thing with Agaye state constituency in Niger State. There is also another state constituency in Akwa Ibom. So as of today, there are four areas where declarations were made under duress and we said we will not give certificates of return to those individuals.”

    “Some of them are already in court,” Okoye added, which means the public should expect riveting drama when the returning officers and the election candidates concerned tell their stories in court. A certificate of return should not be in the hands of an election candidate whose victory was declared under duress. Democracy is not about duress.

  • Oshiomhole blinded by 2023 ambition, says suspended Okorocha

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has accused the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole of plotting to destroy the party in the Southeast geopolitical zone for his selfish political permutations in 2023.

    The Imo governor, who was responding to his reported expulsion from the APC by the National Working Committee of the party, said that Oshiomhole is blinded by his 2023 ambition and has thrown caution to the wind in pursuing it.

    Okorocha, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, noted: “Adams Oshiomhole was determined right from the outset to destroy APC in the Southeast and unknown to party chieftains from the zone who had genuinely supported his chairmanship.

    “He is playing the politics of 2023 in 2019 and in playing it he has thrown caution to the wind”.

    He went on:  “In all the Southeast states there are crises and all arising from the fraudulent manner he conducted the primaries.

    “In 2015, Governor Okorocha had joined the merger that gave birth to APC at the risk of his second tenure and was called all sorts of unprintable names.

    “Yet, he won the governorship election, delivered 24 out of the 27 members of the House of Assembly for APC, two House of Representatives members and one Senator.

    “In 2019, Oshiomhole felt that such a man should be treated with disdain. He handed over the governorship ticket of the Party to Hope Uzodinma who has never resigned his membership of the PDP on the floor of the Senate like others did and giving all kinds of flimsy excuses.

    “And if Oshiomhole had meant well for APC and Imo people in particular, would he have given the ticket of the Party to a man facing five corruption charges and having travel ban slammed on him, to be the party’s Candidate”.

    He added:  “In the February 23, 2019 Presidential and National Assembly election, Governor Okorocha won in ten, out of the twelve Local Government Areas in Orlu zone to emerge winner for Imo West Senatorial District.

    “He also delivered four House of Representatives Candidates on the platforms of APC and AA respectively, with one Senate Seat and two House of Representatives Seats outstanding.

    “And when the APC members across the nation are still celebrating the success of the party in the Presidential and National Assembly elections, Oshiomhole in his wisdom or lack of it, felt that the best action in the circumstance was to suspend two governors who did well in the election, even when he played safe in 2015 and 2019 in Edo State without any known pressure.

    Read also: Why Nigerians re-elected Buhari, by Ojo

    “Again, Oshiomhole coming with the purported expulsion this time was only acting out of the fear that God in his infinite Mercy could give Governor Okorocha a role to play in the Senate, in the overall interest of the nation.

    “The truth is that Oshiomhole is only labouring in vain to play his own part of the deal that warranted his giving out the tickets of the party to non-deserving elements like in the case of Imo.

    “Finally, APC especially in the Southeast and in Imo in particular will outlive Oshiomhole.

    “Men like him hardly sleep with their two eyes closed. They always sleep with their eyes open because they have murdered sleep with their actions and inactions.

    “And unfortunately for him the purported expulsion can’t stand because the law has taken care of it even long before now”.

  • Okorocha to Ohakim: Account for N200b you misappropriated

    …Forget guber ambition, ex-gov told

     

    Imo state Governor Rochas Okorocha has challenged his predecessor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim to give account of the N200 billion his administration misappropriated in four years with nothing to show for it.

    The Imo governor also demanded an explanation from the embattled former governor on how he squandered the N11 billion he appropriated for the phoney contract to dredge the Nworie River.

    Ohakim had during his declaration to join the 2019 governorship election and formal defection to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the platform on which Okorocha ousted him out of office in 2011, threatened to probe governor Okorocha if he returns as governor.

    He also vowed to lift the ban on tricycle in the state capital and return the relocated markets, especially the Owerri Main Market, popularly known as the ‘Eke Ukwu Owerri’.

    But the Imo governor in a statement signed by his Chief Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, lambasted the former governor for failing to give account of his four years in office as the justification to seek re-election.

    Okorocha also observed that the embattled former governor “has eaten his cake and can never have it”, adding that “Ohakim cannot even win election in his ward”.

    According to the statement, “the media had, weekend, quoted the former governor of the State Chief Ikedi Ohakim as threatening to probe Governor Rochas Okorocha among other unfriendly remarks, if he becomes governor again in 2019.

    “The former governor was said to have given that threat while declaring his interest to run for the governorship of the State again in 2019 on the ticket of APGA. He was governor from 2007 to 2011, and was defeated by Governor Okorocha even as incumbent. And since that 2011, he has been contesting for the governorship without success.

    “To us, we won’t dignify the governor with a response, but to only remind him what he failed or refused to do while making the declaration. It was an aberration for the former governor of the State for four years to declare to run for the position again without mentioning at least, one or two achievements of the government he led for the four years”.

    The statement continued that, “in simple logic, you go from the known to the unknown. Chief Ohakim would have told the less than five hundred people at the venue of his declaration what he achieved for the four years he was in charge as governor and then tell them what he left behind at the Government House that he has been labouring to come and take.

    “Chief Ohakim knows that nobody would have known that he made declaration for the 2019 gubernatorial election if he didn’t mention Rochas Okorocha. Hence, the angle of probe. He would have begun with himself to be taken serious. He would have given the assurance that he would find out why he failed woefully in his first outing and what he did with more than N200billion his government appropriated with nothing to show for it, including the N11billion on non-existent dredging of Nworie River.

    “Chief Ohakim had eaten his cake and won’t have it again. He cannot even win his Osu-Owerri Ward 2, in any election at the moment. He didn’t do well at all as governor. He wasted the four years. And that is the reason he has become an unattractive candidate to all the Parties in the State. He is anxious to fill some gaps but he does not know how to go about it”.

    It added further that, “he would have challenged Rochas Okorocha to publish his achievements and let him publish his own if any, on the same day so that Nigerians of goodwill can see for themselves and give their verdicts, for him to be taken serious.

    “He has been governor and the emphasis should be what he was able to do when he was the Chief occupant of the Douglas House and not the threat of probe. He should also explain why he was voted out in 2011 by Imo people and what has changed between that time and now. Or what would change between that period and 2019. The best advice anybody can give him is that he should find other things to do and forget about coming back as the governor of the State”.

     

  • No rift with Imo governor – Madumere

    No rift with Imo governor – Madumere

    Imo State Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere, Wednesday described as malicious and unfounded, reports of disaffection between him and the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha.

    There have been insinuations that the cordial relationship between the Deputy Governor and the Governor has completely broken down following incisive statements against the state government by political leaders from Owerri zone, where the Deputy Governor comes from.

    It was also alleged that the Governor had suspected his Deputy of being the brain behind the agitations Owerri zone for the 2019 governorship election.

    But when contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor, Mr. Uche Onwuchekwa, dismissed the allegation as a figment of the imaginations of the peddlers.

    He insisted that the relationship between the Deputy Governor and his boss, the Governor is even more cordial now than it used to be, adding that, “those spreading such falsehood are only trying to sow seed of discord between the two personalities who have been like father and son for over two decades”.

    According to him, “the Deputy Governor’s loyalty and commitment to the Rescue Mission administration has been tested and proven. The fact that has been giving some sycophants and political jobbers sleepless night is how they remained close all these years unlike what obtains in other states where Governors and their Deputies live like cat and dog. Even as we speak, he is representing the Governor in an international assignment”.

    Onwuchekwa also disclosed that, “the Deputy Governor sees himself first as an Imo man and is not given to politics of division and could not possibly incite any zone to overheat the polity. I think these mischievous politicians and their co-travelers are only envious of the Deputy Governor’s rising profile and may have been commissioned by the enemies of the state government to cause disaffection between him and his boss to derail the administration”.