George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
APC chieftain in Imo, Ifeanyi Araraume, has said that Governor Rochas Okorocha has been deluding himself as a political giant in the state.
Araraume said this against the backdrop of Okorocha’s statement that he would not allow Ararume to destroy APC as he did PDP.
In a statement by his Media Adviser, Ik Ogbonna, yesterday, Araraume said the Imo state governor has contested over 15 elections and lost all.
“Governor Okorocha deludes himself as a political giant but it is not a hidden fact that in his career, he has contested over 15 elections and lost all; governor, party chairman, senator, president etc.
“Even the 2011 governorship election in which he was declared winner was make-belief.
“In 2015, he ran for a second term but the election went into second balloting and he almost lost because of his abysmal performance in his first term.
“Prior to being finally railroaded into the office of governor in 2011, Chief Okorocha had moved from one party to another, in search of political appointments.
“Even so, he was sacked from the one he eventually got into as chairman of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, by the person who gave him the appointment; President Olusegun Obasanjo.”
He continued: “Contrary to governor Okorocha’s claim that senator Araraume joined the APC just to contest for the office of the governor, the truth is that the senator was talked into joining the party by people who belong to certain political circles outside the reach of the governor.
“It was only a matter of circumstance that it was during the 2015 general elections that he finally decided to join; in his continual insistence that there must be fairness and internal democracy in politics.
“Still, the matter of when senator Araraume joined APC is clearly diversionary.
“Even if the senator joined later, especially to ensure his second term election victory, what about his deputy, Prince Eze Madumere, the state chairman of the party, Chief Hillary Eke and others who joined the party the same time with him and who are currently part of the coalition?”
Senator Araraume’s Media Office said he “would not be dragged into responding to the infantile allusions” to his political history “as made in the statement under reference.
“It is not in doubt that the good people of Imo state are conversant with senator Araraume’s political pedigree, which includes propensity for performance, consensus building, honesty, integrity and human capital development; attributes that are completely lacking in governor Okorocha.
“Hence, senator Araraume’s growing acceptance by Imo people and which has given rise to this spate of schizophrenic ranting, clearly unbecoming of the office of a state governor, whose plan to install a puppet that will cover his financial malfeasance and maladministration has been roundly rejected by Ndi Imo.”
