- Senator Araraume claimed all the people of Imo state have decided to go against Governor Okorocha
- He said Governor Okorocha is at war with all the political leaders in the state
- Araraume further alleged that the Imo state governor wants to impose his son-in-law as the next governor to cover his financial misappropriation
Senator Ifeanyi Araraume has claimed that all the people of Imo state, regardless of their political, religious, or ethnic affiliations have decided to stop Governor Rochas Okorocha from 'further destroying' the state by imposing his son-in-law as the next governor.
Araraume alleged that Governor Okorocha has admitted that he is at war with the entire political class in the state.
He said Okorocha has been raining abuses on every political leader of note in the state, including his predecessors, dead or alive.
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In a statement signed by Ik Ogbonna, his media adviser on Saturday, May 12 , Araraume further said that "Okorocha deluded himself as a political giant but it is not a hidden fact that in his career, he has contested over 15 elections and lost all; governor, party chairman, senator, president etc."
Read the statement in full:
“The attention of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume Media Office has been drawn to a recent press statement by the Imo state governor, Chief Rochas Anayo Okorocha, in which he made some scathing comments on the Senator and some other political leaders in the state.
“However, our interest on the matter goes beyond the allusions made by the governor on Senator Araraume over matters which even ordinary street fellows will handle with better sophistication and tact.
“Rather, it is worth pointing out that by his statement, the governor has admitted that he is at war with the entire political class in the state.
“For instance, his inclusion of his two immediate predecessors, Governors Ikedi Ohakim and Achike Udenwa, as being members of a certain coalition that intends to distract him is a clear demonstration of this. Added to this is the fact that he is at loggerheads with his deputy and the two senators in his party. It was perhaps for want of proper language, that the governor resorted to the use of the word “coalition”. But even a freshman in a political science class knows that that word, COALITION, is a clear misnomer in the present circumstances in Imo state.
“What we have in the state is that all well-meaning citizens, from the political class to the academia, from the professions to the clergy, the traditional institutions and even artisans are in agreement, beyond partisan, sectional, religious and cultural boundaries etc to stop Governor Okorocha from further destroying the state, economically, politically, culturally etc. In the last couple of months, Governor Okorocha has been raining abuses on every political leader of note in the state, including his predecessors, dead or alive.
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“As for Senator Araraume, the good people of Imo state have so become used to the governor’s reckless and uncouth utterances on the former that they no longer take him seriously each time he goes to town with the type of statement as the one under reference. Needless to say, the governor’s recent utterances on the senator, especially the one under reference, merely reinforces the feeling among Imo people that the governor harbors a morbid fear over the wide acceptance of the senator by the people in his bid to emerge as their next governor and thus become the arrowhead of the collective quest to end the decadence the governor and his administration has put the state into.
“Governor Okorocha deludes himself as a political giant but it is not a hidden fact that in his career, he has contested over 15 elections and lost all; governor, party chairman, senator, president etc. Even the 2011 governorship election in which he was declared the winner was a make belief. In 2015, he ran for a second term but the election went into second balloting and he almost lost because of his abysmal performance in his first term. Prior to being finally railroaded into the office of governor in 2011, Chief Okorocha had moved from one party to another in search of political appointments. Even so, he was sacked from the one he eventually got into as Chairman of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, by the person who gave him the appointment, President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Contrary to Governor Okorocha’s claim that Senator Araraume joined the APC just to contest for the office of the governor, the truth is that the senator was talked into joining the party by people that belong to certain political circles that are outside the reach of the governor. It was only a matter of circumstances that it was during the 2015 general elections that he finally decided to join; in his continual insistence that there must be fairness and internal democracy in politics. Still, the matter of when Senator Araraume joined APC is clearly diversionary. Even if the senator joined later, especially to ensure his second term election victory, what about his deputy, Prince Eze Madumere, the state chairman of the party, Chief Hillary Eke and others who joined the party the same time with him and who are currently part of the coalition.
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“This much said, the Senator Ifeanyi Araraume Media Office will not be dragged into responding to the infantile allusions to the senator’s political history as made in the statement under reference. It is not in doubt that the good people of Imo state are conversant with the Senator Araraume’s political pedigree, which includes the propensity for performance, consensus building, honesty, integrity and human capital development; attributes that are completely lacking in Governor Okorocha. Hence Senator Araraume’s growing acceptance by Imo people and which has given rise to this spate of schizophrenic ranting clearly unbecoming of the office of a state governor whose plan to install a puppet that will cover his financial malfeasance and maladministration has been roundly rejected by Ndi Imo.”
NAIJ.com previously reported that Governor Okorocha claimed that the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie Oyegun, is after him and making efforts to relieve him of the party structure in the state. He said Oyegun is working against him in Imo state because he (Okorocha) spoke against the chairman's proposed tenure elongation.
Okorocha claimed that making efforts to take the structure of the party away from him was a way of making him pay for daring to oppose tenure elongation.
APC official tells why his party could be voted out in 2019 - on NAIJ.com TV:
Source: Naija.ng