From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha yesterday denied knowledge of the purported presidential posters currently circulating in the nation’s capital, Abuja in which pictures of the Borno State governor, Kassim Shettima, appeared alongside his own as presidential and vice presidential candidates for 2019.
Okorocha who described the posters as the handiwork of mischief-makers who are obviously not comfortable with the laudable achievements in Imo State and his leadership role in the South East zone, but want to create confusion in the minds of Nigerians.
The governor who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo said: “Those behind this mischief first invaded the social media with the fake posters and when they discovered that the comments by decent men and women had all doubted the source and the genuineness of the posters, they decided to paste them in Abuja.
“It is very difficult to capture what the folks behind this pettiness want to achieve or what must have prompted them, in the first place.
“Soon after the 2015 election, and knowing the leading role Governor Okorocha played in the South-East that put the PDP field commanders on their toes, which prevented them from returning the kind of election figures they had returned in 2011 in the zone, and knowing that by virtue of that key role, Governor Okorocha should expectedly reap largely from the President Mohammadu Buhari’s government, they began their campaign of calumny against.
“Since then, they have never left any stone unturned to ensure that they put knife in the enviable relationship existing between the President and Governor Okorocha. Their latest unfortunate outing is the posters in question.”