Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has commended the Archbishop of Owerri Diocese, Anthony Obinna, for acknowledging that he was not attacked by anybody during his speech at a funeral ceremony held at St Michael Catholic Church, Obube, at the weekend, contrary to some media reports.
The governor maintained that his detractors only wanted to use the misunderstanding at the church to blackmail his administration and his APC party.
In a press statement he issued through his Chief Press Secretary and made available to newsmen in Owerri on Monday, Governor Okorocha noted that the cleric was reported to have told a national newspaper that he was “Neither beaten nor manhandled by any person.
“And we have therefore no other option than to leave the matter at that point. Since the Archbishop is at the centre of the whole drama his account should be the most authentic. And we take it up from there,” Okorocha said.
He further said he was not surprise at the blackmail of the attack on the cleric, asserting that his political detractors is aware his party , the All Progressive Congress (APC) will not be a pushover in 2019 general elections.
According to the statement which reads, “The APC is the party to beat in the state in all the elections that will be taking place in 2019 from the Presidential to the governorship, and every blackmail is being dished out now by opponents to see if that can help them. And they know it cannot assist them in any way since such didn’t add any electoral value to them in 2011 and 2015.
“The achievements of the APC government in the state have surpassed all that the administrations before it since the creation of the state put together had achieved. We want to be challenged on this recurring claim from our side.
“We are also aware that one of the big churches that own the largest and most expensive private schools in the state are not happy with the free education programme in the state that has become a huge success story. Their obvious anger is that the free education venture has drastically depopulated their private schools.
“Let any interested party or person publish the achievements of all those, both military and civilian who had governed the state before 2011, and let us publish the achievements of Governor Rochas Okorocha for seven years so that the public can see why it is very difficult for Imo people to vote for any other party aside APC and its candidate”
On the purported link of Uche Nwosu to the Archbishop’s incident, Governor Okorocha said, “Their blackmail didn’t stop us in 2015, and they will lose their deposit in 2019.
“Why is Uche Nwosu the hottest political figure in the state today? Why do they not talk about the possible candidates of other political parties. Why has Uche Nwosu become hot cake everyone wants to buy.
“That is where the pendulum or compass is pointing at. And Imo people have bought into the whole thing. That is why it has become an issue even at the pulpit.
“If the only issue Uche Nwosu has for which he cannot be governor is being an in-law to Governor Okorocha, then we should give America back their democracy since that is where we copied from. The same America, where George Walker Bush became the 43rd President, from 2001 to 2009 after his father, George Herbert Walker Bush had become the country’s 41st President from 1989 to 1993.
“Again, Bill Clinton was President of America from 1993 to 2001, and the wife, Hillary Clinton was Senator from 2001 to 2009, and became the Presidential Candidate of the Democratic Party in the 2016 election. And Americans never talked about her husband being President of that country from 1993 to 2001, but concentrated on the capacity of the woman. The question becomes, when will our own democracy grow?
“All in all, the fate of Uche Nwosu is first, in the hand of God and secondly in the hands of the Imo electorate and we are very optimistic of favourable verdicts in 2019,” Governor Okorocha said.