Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Imo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Daniel Nwafor has described the suspension order handed to Governor Rochas Okorocha by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party as a nullity.
Speaking yesterday, Nwafor also called for the immediate resignation of the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomole, over the action.
But the APC governorship candidate in the state, Senator Hope Uzodimma, has advised Okorocha to accept the hard reality that neither the APC nor Imo State were his private estates which he can appropriate at will without consequences.
Nwafor, however, insisted that the NWC did not follow the provisions of the constitution of the party before suspending Okorocha.
He said that a decision to call for Oshiomole’s resignation was reached after an extensive meeting between the ward and local government chairman of the party in the state. Nwafor maintained that the NWC erred constitutionally, explaining that Article 21 of the constitution of the party forbids NWC from suspending a governor without going through the legal processes.
He, however, appealed to the President Muhammadu Buhari to call Oshiomole to order before he scuttles all the plans of the party.
Nwafor also warned Uzodinma to desist from parading himself as a member of APC, explaining that his suspension from the party still stands.
Reacting to the Okorocha’s outbursts last Friday over his suspension from the APC by the NWC for anti-party activities, Uzodimma said the governor should accept that he was the architect of his woes instead of looking for scapegoats in the national chairman of the party and himself. In a statement by the Director of Media and Special Duties of his campaign organisation, Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba, he regretted that Okorocha had always used every slight opportunity to pour insults on Oshimhole and the APC governorship candidate and blame them for his political travails instead of accepting that it was his greed and unbridled ambition to use the APC to convert Imo State to his family business that was responsible for his woes.
Uzodimma said that Okorocha should blame himself for imagining that he can turn purely republican Imo people into his political slaves and hostages by imposing his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor.
“This is the greatest insult anybody can give to Imo people because it’s an outright attempt to make a people with proud republican heritage slaves in their own state,” he said.