- Gov’s loyalists kick
Some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo have described Governor Rochas Okorocha’s suspension by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) as well deserved.
In fact, a party chieftain, Dr Jude Agu, said Okorocha has been engaged in anti- party activities in his pursuit to make his son in-law succeed him as governor.
Agu said Okorocha would have been suspended long ago to check his bad influence in the party.
He said the NWC of the APC should equally suspend Okorocha’s allies in the party, whom he said are also involved in anti-party activities.
The NWC had on suspended Okorocha for anti-party activities.
But Okorocha, in his reaction to the suspension through his Chief Press Secretary Sam Onwuemeodo, said some APC leaders are after him over 2023 politics.
He also said the suspension was meant to stop him from holding a critical position in the senate, adding that the suspension would eventually fail.
A former commissioner in the State, Mr. John Anyanwu, said with the suspension of Okorocha, APC now has better chances of winning the governorship election.
He said if Okorocha was allowed, he would definitely work against the APC candidate in the state.
An APC woman leader in Obowo Local Government Area, Mrs. Rose Ibeawuchi, said Okorocha’s suspension has restored confidence in the party.
“We were all in dark days during the imposition of the governor’s son in-law on the party.
“Now that he has been suspended, we will have another opportunity to tell our supporters who the APC governorship candidate really is,” she said.
On his part, the APC governorship candidate, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, berated Okorocha to stop insulting Imo people.
Uzodinma said Okorocha should accept the reality that neither the APC nor the State are his private estates, which he can do whatever he likes with, without the consequences.
He said this while reacting to Okorocha’s verbal attack on APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, following his suspension from the party for alleged anti-party activities.
In a statement by the Director of Media and Special Duties of his campaign organisation, Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba, Uzodinma insisted that Okorocha should accept that he is the architect of his woes, and should stop looking for scapegoats in Oshiomhole and himself.
He lamented that the governor had always used every slight opportunity to pour insults on Oshimhole and himself.
“This is the greatest insult anybody can give to Imo people because it’s an outright attempt to make a people with proud republican heritage hostages in their own state.
“Unfortunately, Okorocha has failed to appreciate the gravity of this insult on our people,” the statement said.
Yet a faction of the party loyal to Okorocha called for Oshiomhole’s resignation over the suspension.
Its Chairman, Mr. Daniel Nwafor, while addressing a press conference in Owerri on Saturday, said Oshiomhole disregarded the rule of law in the suspension of governor Okorocha.
According to Nwafor, the party’s state chapter would not honour the ‘purported suspension’ of Okorocha from the APC, adding that the former governor of Edo State has outlived his usefulness in the party.
Nwafor further noted that the party’s record in the state shows that Senator Hope Uzodinma is not a registered member of the APC in his ward in the Oru East Local Government Area.
He therefore stressed that APC has no governorship candidate in the March 9, 2019 gubernatorial election.
He said: “I was with the APC chairman from Ogboko ward where the governor hails from. There was no letter from the NWC to him to query the governor for any offence.
“The truth is that Oshiomhole is a man who has no respect for rule of law. He has penchant for disobeying valid court judgments and orders.
“We demand his immediate resignation from the APC. Adams Oshiomhole has outlived his usefulness in the APC.
“ As a party we will not honour that purported suspension. It is null and void and of no effect. Governor Rochas Okorocha remains the leader of the APC in Imo State.”