From George Onyejiuwa,Owerri
Secretary to the Government of Imo State (SSG), Sir George Eche has denied saying that wife of the state governor oversees four ministries in the state.
He described as erroneous, a report by a national daily that the wife of the governor called the shot in certain ministries.
This was just as he said the reporter who he claimed was a stringer in the state quoted him out of context and distorted his statement.
A statement signed by Eche read: “ My attention has been drawn to the statement on the front page of a national daily (not Daily Sun) of Monday, December 19, in which I was quoted out of context as having said the wife of the governor oversees four ministries.
“I want to urgently clarify the allegation for the the reading public.
“It was a simple but colourful event in which her Excellency, the wife of the governor, Nneoma Okorocha was being honoured by the Correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Imo State chapter. While speaking for his Excellency, Governor Rochas Okorocha who I was privileged to represent, I had occasion to highlight some of the achievements of the governor’s wife which includes her SNARP programme which has provided shelter for about 200 indigent widows, her WOODI project and her continued projection of the hitherto marginalised womenfolk to the extent that women now control many key ministries including health, works, transport and education.”
He said the reporter had mischievously gone ahead to misinterpret his statement about the effort of the Imo State First Lady to ensure that the women are given prominent positions in the current administration to mean that the First lady now supervises four ministries in the state.
“ The author of this orchestrated piece is well known to this government, his backers and paymasters from who he has, according to him obtained statements, are also not unknown to this government. It was once everywhere that the chief press secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo had been ignobly sacked. It was also said the governor had said the deputy governor would never succeed him. These pieces of falsehood and unimaginative thinking came from the same source that has consistently sustained this one sided war against this government.”