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Gov Okorocha’s alleged plot to install son-in-law as next gov tears Imo APC apart

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No such plan to spend N850m for Christmas trees, Okorocha says

An open letter of resignation as a member of Imo State Development Council (SDC), by Uche Onyeagucha, an All Progressives Congress chieftain from Owerri zone, may have signaled the awaited crisis ahead 2019 elections in the state.

There have been fears of possible eruption of crisis in the State, especially within the ruling APC over an alleged plot by Governor Rochas Okorocha to install his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor.

The issue of which zone would produce the next governor of the state in 2019 has remained a delicate matter and a subject of concern to politicians in the state, especially those of them in APC and from Okigwe and Owerri zones, who have vowed never to allow the purported plot by Okorocha to install his son-in-law, as his successor materialise.

The governor and Nwosu both hail from the same zone (Orlu).

Onyeagucha, a former Owerri federal constituency House of Representatives member, may have let the cat out of the bag with his open letter to Okorocha.

He wrote, “I hereby write to resign my membership of the State Development Council (SDC) which appointment I was not offered to accept or reject from the outset.

“The reasons for my resignation are expressed below in as plain and simple language as possible to dispel every risk of ambiguity. Ordinarily, communications such as this are made through memos, but since it is common knowledge that you do not read such ‘irksome’ literature, I therefore chose to use this unconventional medium in the hope that your attention will be drawn to it one way or another. My reasons for resignation are as follows:

“1. Your selection of 305 persons (one per Ward) as SDC members is a mere political arrangement in your desperate attempt to foist Uche Nwosu, your son-in-law as the next governor of Imo State come 2019 despite the fact that he is from the same zone as yourself and Chief Achike Udenwa.

“2. You have used SDC members to mobilize our people to fill out fictitious empowerment and other forms through the office of your son-in-law as a way to garner admiration and make the masses see him as dispenser of State favour.

“3. I am no longer able to allow myself to be used as an instrument against Imo State workers and pensioners. I oppose your current plan to extort Imo pensioners of 50 per cent of their pension rights having previously extorted them of 30 per cent of their pensions and other workers’ salaries. A state that is incapable of paying her pensioners and other workers, her governor should not be moving around in private jet.

“4. I am no longer submitting myself to be used as an instrument to emasculate the State Civil Service which structure you have deliberately distorted and almost completely destroyed.

“5. Having fought against oppression and arbitrariness all my life as a Civil Rights activist, I’ve long observed that your administration has brazenly drifted towards dictatorship and despotism. Every effort to advice you in the contrary have failed. I am left with no option than to join forces with other progressive minds to stand up against your dictatorial tendencies.

“6. You have deliberately underfunded and emasculated our great party (APC) at every level. This is pronounced in the fact that no single branch of our Party in Imo State has a bus. Party offices of Wards and LGAs have been ceased by their landlords because you have refused to assist them to pay rents. Our Party State Headquarters is only but a shadow of what the State Office of a governing Party should be. All appeal to you on these matters has failed, making us to doubt your loyalty and support for APC which delivered you as Governor of Imo State.

Read also: PDP says Gov Okorocha’s wife’s position confirms he’s running ‘family govt’

“7. You have impoverished all your political appointees who ought to be making contributions to fund and support our great party. Precisely, your commissioners, advisers, assistants and Transition Committee Chairmen – past and present – have been paid peanuts that turned them to beggars rather than benefactors to our great party. The situation today is so bad that every of your appointee who had been relieved of their appointments have turned into an enemy rather than asset to the Party.

“8. Your deception and continued refusal to conduct LGA elections after 6 long years have further worsened the development and growth of the party and the LGAs. I challenge you to honour your word for once by conducting LGA elections in Imo State in September 2017.

“9. The State has suffered so much from your lack of planning and hatred for due process in the affairs of government.

“Finally, I am compelled to join forces with well-meaning and egalitarian APC leaders to rescue APC in Imo State and the state itself from you.”

Prior to his letter, Onyeagucha had also on May 3, at Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat in Owerri, during the 2017 World Press Freedom Day, openly disagreed with Okorocha on the plot to have Nwosu, his son-in-law, becomes the next governor of the state in 2019.

He had said, “There is a big issue in Imo state and that is which of the zones will produce the next governor of Imo state. The governor said there is nothing like zoning, why is it that his deputy is from another zone and the Speaker of Imo House of Assembly from another zone?”

Ripples Nigeria in its story, “Investigations… Facts, lies and how Okorocha allegedly corners state assets for self, family”, had reported how many indigenes of the state alleged that Okorocha awarded contracts in the state to unknown firms that either directly or indirectly belong to him or his family members, and who end up doing substandard works.

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The governor and his family members were among other things in that report, accused of confiscating and acquiring properties in choice areas of the state and sometimes forcefully taking over property belonging to citizens.

As it appears, Onyeagucha may have let open the bottled grievances among many Imo people, who may not have been happy that by the end of Okorocha’s tenure in 2019, Orlu zone would have ruled the state for 16 years since the return of democracy that will be 20 years by 2019.

There are strong indications that many of Okorocha’s supporters from Owerri and Okigwe zones who presently appear as friends and allies, have vowed to let him know how embittered they are about the dominance of Orlu zone over other zones in the state when the chips are down.

 

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0 Comments

  1. Animashaun Ayodeji

    May 26, 2017 at 10:12 am

    Okorocha has been a dictator and a great liar since he emerged the governor of the state, but the people of Imo State are so dumb to realize it. He’s always handling imo state like it’s his family property. It is left to the people of Imo to allow him plant another dictator, his son-in-law as the next governor who will rule over them and still hand over to another’s family member

    • yanju omotodun

      May 26, 2017 at 11:32 am

      Okorocha is a man of the people so the people won’t hesitate to vote in anyone he appointed to wear them shoe he’s about to off

      • seyi jelili

        May 27, 2017 at 4:25 am

        You think so, let’s watch and see then

  2. Abeni Adebisi

    May 26, 2017 at 10:30 am

    I almost forgot Imo state is a democratic state sef ?, how did they manage to have a zone rule them for 16 good years, are there no people in other zones?

    Today’s polictians can’t even be allowed to rule for 8 years which is two tenures, let alone having all governors from a zone. They must have turned politics in Imo state to Orlu Zone’s birth right truly. The people needs to wake up and also wake others up from their slumber and take charge of the state peacefully, else, Orlu will continue to rule Imo state forever

    • Anita Kingsley

      May 26, 2017 at 10:46 am

      Im surprised how you’re handling an issue that’s none of your business! Are we complaining of anything? Which other zone is better than Orlu in this state that you know? Rochas hasn’t done anything wrong and he’s been serving the people who put him in government with all his heart. I know you’re Yoruba and that’s why you are pokenosing into an affair that doesn’t concern you, well, that’s what the Yorubas are known for. Please face the problems in your state, were at peace here in Imo

  3. JOHNSON PETER

    May 27, 2017 at 3:46 am

    The thing here is that, onyeagucha resignation as member of SDC does not mean Nwosu won’t still be the next government if GOD desires it. I know probably the idiot wanted to be the next governor as well. Politics of personal interest

    • seyi jelili

      May 27, 2017 at 4:24 am

      Sure, you are right. But all same, okorocha should not turn the government as family things

      • Joy Madu

        May 27, 2017 at 4:49 am

        God bless you seyi i wonder what Rocha’s was thinking before making such decision….Rocha’s should better stay and face his own government so that others can come in

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