Rochas tells APC national leadership to hands off Imo State chapter of the party

GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha has warned the All Progressives Congress' (APC) publicity secretary Lanre Issa-Onilu to stay away from the internal affairs of the Imo State chapter of the party after he claimed that the party had removed the governor as its campaign coordinator.

Over recent months, Governor Okorocha has been involved in a bitter spat with the APC leadership in Abuja after the party adopted Senator Hope Uzodinma as its Imo State gubernatorial candidate.  Governor Okorocha had backed his son-in-law Uche Nwosu to clinch the APC ticket but after numerous battles, the party eventually settled for Senator Uzodinma, prompting Mr Nwosu to leave the party.

APC chairman Adams Oshiomole has accused Governor Okorocha of engaging in anti-party activities over his refusal to back Senator Uzodinma and his continued support for Mr Nwosu. A few weeks ago, this dispute boiled over when the president's wife, represented by Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo and other APC dignitaries came to Owerri for a rally and Governor Okorocha boasted at the event that Mr Nwosu will win the governorship elections in the state.

In response to the governor's intransigence, Mr Issa-Onilu announced earlier this week that Governor Okorocha had been removed as the APC campaign coordinator in Imo State.  However, in a swift response, Governor Okorocha said Mr Issa-Onilu and his cohorts have done enough harm by imposing an intruder and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governorship candidate.

Sam Onwuemeodo, Governor Okorocha's spokesman, said: “It has become necessary to appeal to the national publicity secretary of the APC, Lanre Issa-Onilu and those behind him, to please leave the Imo State chapter of the party alone after inflicting deep cut on the party by imposing a known PDP member as the governorship candidate. Twenty-four hours to the presidential rally in Owerri, Mr Issa-Onilu had no other contribution to make than to raise false alarms and making disturbing claims that APC has removed Governor Rochas Okorocha as the campaign coordinator.

"He added that APC has alerted the police and Department of State Security of plots by Okorocha and Uche Nwosu to disrupt the rally. It is unfortunate that in their efforts to justify whatever they had eaten over the governorship ticket, they have decided to be callous about the whole thing, otherwise, they would have known that the rally is Okorocha’s event.

“In any case, Governor Okorocha has never been the party’s state campaign coordinator. He is rather President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign coordinator as he was among those inaugurated by the president and Issa-Onilu and his group cannot remove who they never appointed, so, his claim was borne out of ignorance."

According to Mr Onwuemeodo, Governor Okorocha is duly in-charge and the presidential rally will hold peacefully too. He added that they had raised the false alarm to discourage the president from attending the event like they did during the presidential rally for youths and women.