By Declan Emelumba
The frenzy with which Senator Rochas Okorocha has been celebrating his pyrrhic victory on the Federal High Court, Abuja, over the Imo West senatorial major of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has greater than confirmed that the judgment was premeditated. As loquacious as ever, Okorocha has gone to city to thank those that facilitated that travesty of justice. His point out of assist from excessive locations, and his speedy embrace of the so-called Rainbow Coalition with none contact with the APC on the grassroots, have given him and his co-conspirators away. But Nigerians should not fooled. Many have recalled the previous saying: the witch cried within the evening, and the kid died at daybreak.
One sharp commentary got here from Sam Amadi, a lawyer, rights activist and politician from Imo State, who isn’t any fan of Governor Hope Uzodimma. In a Facebook submit the day after the judgment, Amadi wrote: “Hope Uzodimma may be guilty of many things. But it does not mean he is guilty of everything.” He pointed to the footage of Uzodimma voting on the primaries election day, together with his spouse by his aspect and a big crowd of APC members behind him. Then he threw down a easy problem: “Let us see the evidence of Okorocha’s primary election.”
That could sound educational in a courtroom, nevertheless it confirms what APC members in Ideato South, Okorocha’s house, and throughout Imo State have stated all alongside: he was an absentee aspirant who neither campaigned nor took half within the major. His son Amen, who swore to the affidavit used to obtain this phantom judgment, is just not even identified to the get together.
As Jesus stated of Judas, it was written that the Son of Man could be betrayed, however woe unto the person who betrays him. Chief Sam Mbakwe spoke in the identical method concerning the vexed deserted property situation, underneath which Ndigbo have been dispossessed of their property in Rivers State. He stated that every time that infamy was talked about, the person who chaired the Abandoned Properties Implementation Committee, David Mark, could be remembered on the incorrect aspect of historical past. In like method, every time controversial Federal High Court judgments are talked about, the title of Justice Obiora Egwuatu will likely be remembered. That he put aside Supreme Court rulings duly cited earlier than him handy a questionable victory to Okorocha seals his place within the corridor of infamy.
What is baffling is the best way Okorocha has been shifting from one media home to a different, gloating over this so-called victory, vilifying the governor and talking as if the judgment have been the ultimate phrase. Unless he is aware of one thing that isn’t written within the Electoral Act or the Constitution, or except these pulling his strings have given their puppet overwhelming assurances, Uzodimma retains the correct to enchantment this judgment all the best way to the Supreme Court. Okorocha’s religion in a judgment that can’t stand the take a look at of the regulation is curious, particularly because the Imo APC has already disowned him.
On Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, the very day of the judgment, Okorocha declared: “Hope has never won an election in his life.” The file says in any other case. Uzodimma gained the Imo West Senate seat twice and sat within the seventh and eighth Senates. In the 2023 governorship election, he polled 540,308 votes in opposition to 71,503 for the PDP and 64,081 for the Labour Party. INEC’s returning officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, declared him winner and returned him elected. Now distinction that with Okorocha’s personal path to the Senate in 2019. Announcing the Imo West consequence, the returning officer, Prof. Innocent Ibeawuchi, instructed the nation: “I declared this thing before under duress; I’m still under duress declaring this one.” INEC initially refused Okorocha a certificates of return. So which of the 2 males has by no means really gained an election?
On the identical programme, Okorocha stated: “There’s no single project initiated by Hope and finished by Hope.” He ought to ask his personal folks. The highway Okorocha constructed to his village collapsed, slicing his group off from the remainder of Imo and subjecting his folks to untold hardship. Three governors, Okorocha included, couldn’t repair the Orlu–Mgbee–Akokwa–Uga federal highway, the one accessible path to his village. Uzodimma rebuilt it from finish to finish, along with the Umuchima Bridge linking Orlu and Ideato, which Okorocha did not construct in all his years as governor and senator. The Auxiliary Bishop of Orlu, Most Rev. Thomas Ifeanyichukwu Obiatuegwu, publicly praised the venture and thanked the governor. The highway and bridge Okorocha’s personal folks now use have been delivered by the person he mocks.
He went additional: “He can’t beat my record. He can’t even get close to it. Not one, one hundredth of my record.” Every Imo individual is aware of that Okorocha’s so-called initiatives fell into wreck even earlier than he left workplace. The International Conference Centre, a stone’s throw from Government House, misplaced its roof, and its ceiling caved in. The Mother and Child Hospital on Douglas Road, Owerri, was left to mechanics, hoodlums and reptiles; it’s not match to be referred to as a poultry farm, not to mention a hospital. Chukwuma Nwoha Road, Dick Tiger Road and different city roads had change into swampy bush paths till Uzodimma rebuilt them. And within the title of city renewal, Okorocha savagely destroyed the piped water system he inherited. It is difficult to consider that the Imo of as we speak is similar Imo that Okorocha spent eight years spoiling and pillaging. That previous Imo was really nothing to write down house about.
Acting like a bull in a china store, Okorocha accuses Uzodimma of humiliation and intimidation. That bears the mark of envy and an outsized grudge, which solely info can heal. He has not instructed Nigerians why safety businesses arrested his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu. He has not instructed Nigerians that the EFCC secured forfeiture orders on properties traced to him, his spouse and his daughter. He has not defined the Royal Spring Palm Estate on Akachi Road, Owerri: authorities land developed and claimed as non-public property by his spouse, Nkechi. He has not defined how Eastern Palm University, constructed with public funds, got here to be claimed as his personal till the Uzodimma authorities recovered it and renamed it Ok.O. Mbadiwe University. Nor has he talked about the state panel that discovered he used troopers and hoodlums to grab the land of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education and demolish 101 workers buildings. He speaks as we speak as a free man solely as a result of Uzodimma, in opposition to sensible counsel, refused to prosecute him and his household for widespread corruption. Okorocha should be answering for his file, not evaluating it with Uzodimma’s.
Indeed, he already has fees to reply. A Senior Magistrate Court in Abuja has issued a bench warrant in opposition to Okorocha and his son Amen, on fees of felony conspiracy, forgery, perjury and false paperwork over the first outcomes he paraded. The police confirmed that they arrested him on the REIZ Continental Hotel in Abuja on 12 October and launched him on bail. Yet on dwell tv he insisted: “Never was I arrested.” A person who can acquire a doubtful courtroom order whereas going through forgery fees, after which deny an arrest the police have confirmed, is able to something. Is this the character the APC desires to fly its flag at subsequent 12 months’s senatorial election?
Like the proverbial nza hen that eats its fill after which challenges its chi to a wrestling match, Okorocha has stepped again onto his acquainted terrain of deceit. He now claims that his title on the poll ensures Tinubu’s victory in Imo, whereas “Hope cannot carry Imo. Cannot carry South East.” The figures inform a distinct story. In 2015, as a first-term governor searching for re-election and the de facto chief of the APC in Imo, Okorocha delivered Muhammadu Buhari 133,253 votes, about 19 per cent, effectively wanting the 25 per cent he now brags about. Only in 2019, after Uzodimma joined the APC, did Buhari cross the mark, with 140,463 votes, or about 27 per cent. Instructively, a lot of the votes got here from Oru East native authorities, Uzodimma’s house, the place Buhari secured over 90% of the votes solid.
In 2023, when an Igbo son was on the presidential poll and Ndigbo have been emotional about his candidacy, Tinubu polled 66,406 votes in Imo, about 14 per cent and his finest consequence anyplace within the South-East. He received 8,914 votes in Abia, 5,111 in Anambra and 4,772 in Enugu. And the place was Okorocha, the self-acclaimed founding father of the get together? By his personal admission on Arise Television, he most popular Peter Obi.
This self-righteous man, who claims to be a sufferer and prances round Abuja with out touching base at house, has labelled Uzodimma grasping. I cannot dignify his beer-parlour gossip about what the governor desires. Let us as a substitute look at the info within the public area. In December 2014, as a sitting governor, Okorocha contested the APC presidential major and polled 624 votes. When he misplaced, he went again house and secured a second time period as governor. In 2019, nonetheless a sitting governor, he ran for the Senate whereas sponsoring his son-in-law to succeed him. In 2022, as a senator, he contested the APC presidential major in opposition to Tinubu and scored zero. If that isn’t greed, what’s?
When Uzodimma defeated his son-in-law for the APC governorship ticket, Okorocha moved Nwosu to a different get together and labored in opposition to the APC. Adams Oshiomhole, then nationwide chairman of the APC, referred to as him “an embarrassment to APC” and accused him of attempting “to create a dynasty” in Imo. So why is Uzodimma’s senatorial ambition a mortal sin in Okorocha’s eyes? It is the case of the person with a log in his personal eye shouting concerning the speck in one other’s.
Okorocha is aware of he can not win a councillorship election in his hometown of Ogboko. In September, councillors from Ideato North and Ideato South held a particular plenary on the Umuchima Bridge, endorsed Uzodimma for the Imo West Senate seat and barred Okorocha from utilizing roads and bridges he by no means constructed. The man who calls himself the Abraham of the APC is as we speak represented within the House of Representatives by an opposition lawmaker, Ikenga Ugochinyere. So a lot for his electoral worth.
These fundamental info ought to information these goading Okorocha into this political gamble, during which he has bought his soul to betrayal slightly than repent of the atrocities of his eight-year imperial reign in Imo State. The APC and its leaders should not permit this perfidy to face. The get together’s destiny in Orlu Zone hangs within the stability. Its destiny in Imo State additionally hangs within the stability. Rochas Okorocha is poor in honour and integrity, carries no electoral worth within the state, and has lent himself to the destruction of the APC’s pillar within the South-East.
•Emelumba is Imo state Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy
