From Everest Ezihe, Owerri
There is serious political signal that Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, have re opened fresh rivalry over the soul of the All Progressive Congress, APC in the State
Governor Uzodimma, had claimed over the weekend that his predecessor, Senator Okorocha, as well as Senaor Ifeanyi Araraume and their followers never intended to participate in the state APC membership Revalidation Exercise.
According to Uzodimma “The Governor of Niger State had called me to say that Okorocha is not serious. That he was no longer talking of registration, but party structure’ Uzodimma told visiting APC National Registration Appeal Committee led by Alhaji Farouk Adamu Aliyu.
He had also claimed that the former governor directed his followers not to participate in the exercise.
Aliyu had said the visit of the delegation to Imo State was necessitated by petitions written by Senator Rochas Okorocha to the national Caretaker Committee of the party on his exclusion from the party registration exercise.
However, Okorocha who fired back through a statement issued Sunday by media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo accused Uzodimma of lying to the visiting committee, even as described “Uzodinma’s allegations are laughable.”
According to him “The registration and Revalidation Exercise didn’t take place anywhere in Imo State. It was done at the Nick Banquet Hall in Government House, Owerri. The governor’s appointees were generating fictitious names at the local government level and took them to the Government House, to be enrolled.
He said “We challenge the governor to tell the public how the exercise was carried out in Imo State. Whether it was polling unit by polling unit, like Okorocha did when APC anchored, or, Ward by Ward or Local Government by Local Government.
“If Okorocha had refused to be registered like our Governor had claimed, what happened to Senator Godwin Ifeanyi Araraume and his Destiny Political family, who produced four House of Assembly members, that joined others to give Governor Uzodimma the majority in the House?
“What happened to top Imo politicians in APC and their supporters who could not go to the Government House to be part of the abracadabra, including Sir Jude Ejiogu, Lady Chidinma Uwajimogu, who was a Senatorial aspirant and a mobilizer of note, High Chief Chidi Ineh (MfR) and so on?” He queried
