Uzodinma’s govt is PDP not APC – Okorocha

Former Governor of Imo State, Senator RochasOkorocha, yesterday took a swipe at Governor Hope Uzodinma over alleged spurious claims against him, saying the present administration is that of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in action and structure, and not of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In a statement issued in Owerri, Okorocha, through his special adviser (media), Sam Onwuemeodo, dismissed as baseless, reported claims by Uzodinma that Okorocha requested him to dissolve the probe panels set up against him by Chief EmekaIhedioha, retain Mr. Daniel Nwafor as the State Chairman of the APC because of his 2023 presidential ambition, and recall the sacked elected local government chairmen.
In his reaction to the allegations, Okorocha, who declared that he has no problem with Uzodinma, pointed out that he is the one “creating problems for himself and also inventing problems where they do not exist.
“The government in Imo, as we speak, or as we write, is APC in name, but totally a PDP faction in structure and in actions. The governor has not done anything to show that he is of the APC and that his government is that of the APC. It is the Camphope government – made up of those who were with him in his own faction of the PDP.
“He was inaugurated in January as governor. The key or main stakeholders of APC in the state and their supporters were all at the inauguration including RochasOkorocha, IfeanyiAraraume, UcheNwosu, et al. But few weeks after the inauguration, the governor made his appointments of about 106 people including commissioners. He never deemed it necessary to bring in, at least, one known APC member in the state to make the list.
“The man he appointed Secretary to the State Government, Chief Cosmos Iwu, junior brother of the former INEC chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, is a PDP member and was also in the same position during the previous PDP government. His Chief of Staff, Chief NnamdiAnyaehie, was the state chairman of his own faction of the PDP in the state. The man he gave Adams Oshiomhole to be made the chairman of the caretaker committee of the APC, Chief MarcillinusNlemigbo, was aone time chairman of the PDP in the state. We can go on and on.
“Okorocha also asked the eight core APC members who Oshiomahole had forced to move to Action Alliance, AA, for the House of Assembly election, who also won, to go back to APC. Which they did. Senator IfeanyiAraraume asked the six members on the ticket of APGA to also move to APC. They did, which made it to have the majority in the House of Assembly with few other PDP members who moved to the APC. What has the governor done in appreciation of all these gestures?
“Those who used him to fight Okorocha and put a deep cut in the APC in Imo have not relented for reasons Imo people and Nigerians in general know. Those people are not from Imo. They think they have annexed the state through the governor. But time will tell,” he said.
On the issue of Daniel Nwafor and the state chairmanship of the APC, Onwuemeodo explained that it has gone beyond the governor allowing him to remain as chairman or not because Nwafor was elected during the last congress of the party as the state chairman of the party.
“When Oshiomhole came up with the issue of the caretaker committee in Imo, Nwafor went to court and got judgement in his favour. All these were before the emergence of Senator Uzodinma as governor. In the circumstance, he was expected to take steps to resolve these issues but he has not cared to do so,” he noted.