The Imo State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the just-concluded elections, Senator Hope Uzodinma, on Saturday warned governor Rochas Okorocha to stop the blame game and face his woes squarely.
While describing Okorocha as “the real mole in the APC”, Uzodinma said it was laughable that the governor who had all long worked against the interest of the APC both locally and internationally would suddenly turn around to accuse others of being moles in the party.
According to him, Okorocha was simply reaping the result of his anti-party activities, adding that “but instead of accepting his fate, he is busy looking for whom to latch on as a drowning man”.
Our correspondent reported that Okorocha had in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, alleged that Uzodinma worked for the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party and governor-elect, Emeka Ihedioha in the elections.
He had claimed that Uzodimma was one of the first to celebrate with Ihedioha, after he was declared the winner of the election, citing a video of the two contestants as proof of his guilt.
Okorocha said Uzodimma succeeded in the alleged plot by ensuring that only his supporters were made agents of the party, adding that his target was to destroy APC in the South-East.
“We had maintained that Chief Uzodinma was just a mole in the APC and today, the governorship election in the state and its outcome have obviously vindicated us, aside from the fact that a video of Chief Uzodinma’s celebration with Ihedioha has gone viral on the social media”, Okorocha said.
But Uzodinma in a statement on Saturday said events preceding the governorship election in Imo state had clearly showed that Okorocha was against the interest of APC.
He cited the zonal youth and Women Presidential Campaign rally, the APC Presidential rally in Imo State and the adoption of another political platform, Action Alliance with which he mobilised state resources to get some members of the APC in Imo State in pursuit of the governorship ambition of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu.
Uzodinma said, “The clearest evidence of this sabotage was on live television when the result of Ideato Local Government Area (Okorocha’s home LGA) was declared as more than 70,000 in favour of AA which created a stalemate and was later illegally reduced to 40,000. The question to ask is: what was the basis for reducing the result at a LGA Collation Centre?
“Okorocha had brazenly continued to work against the APC and this manifested on the governorship election day in the state when having realised that I was cruising to victory, the governor quickly moblised thugs dressed in military and police uniforms to snatch ballot boxes to manipulate scores in favour of the PDP candidate when it became apparent that his anointed son-in-law will not make it. It was at this point that they falsified the scores for PDP and AA.
“Prior to that, the governor used the same thugs dressed in military and police uniforms to forcibly chase away APC polling agents at the various polling units and fielded those of the AA. So who is more of a mole in the APC than Rochas Okorocha?”
Speaking on the purported allegation that he had felicitated Emeka Ihedioha he reiterated that the video of him and Ihedioha trending on social media ”was at a different occasion, way before the election which is a wedding ceremony”.
While describing it as the handiwork of mischief makers and detractors, Uzodinma wondered how he could have congratulated the PDP candidate when he has vowed to challenge the outcome of the election in court to reclaim his mandate.
He also debunked the claim that he (Uzodinma) ensured that only his supporters were made agents of the APC during the governorship elections in the South East.
Senator Uzodinma said that was “a white lie from Okorocha” as the agents were duly approved and sent by the National headquarters of APC but were chase away by the hired thugs of the governor.
PUNCH
