By Aiyeku Timothy
Former Imo Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has insisted that no amount of blackmail will stop him from running for the office of the President if he decides to.
The Imo Senator directed his claim to his successor, Governor Hope Uzodimma, as he accused the State government of masterminding blackmail against him.
Okorocha made this allegations through a press statement by his Special Adviser on media, Sam Onwuemeodo, on Tuesday.
The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo had claimed that the former Imo governor is not fit to be Nigeria’s president and that attracted his reaction to have alleged a deliberate attempt to discredit him.
According to Okorocha, the governor’s move is an attempt to puncture the pronouncement made by an Igbo group known as the Movement for the Actualisation of the Nigeria President of Igbo Extraction (MANPIE), who called on him to run for president in 2023 as he advised the governor to concentrate on governance of the State instead of attacking him.
The statement reads: “Governor Hope Uzodimma’s government was behind the blackmail in line with the script handed over to him by those who enlisted him against Okorocha, with regard to the 2023 Presidency.
“Hence, Governor Uzodimma has not committedly begun to govern Imo State. He is only after Rochas Okorocha. He was behind the story of Okorocha being unfit to be Nigeria’s President.”
While challenging the governor on his achievements so far, Okorocha said, “Let governor Uzodimma publish what he has done with Federal Allocations, Local Government Allocations, ISOPADEC Funds, IGR etc, in 11 months and let us publish what Okorocha was able to achieve within the same period when he held sway as governor. This is the best way to go. And not hide and seek game.
“The government in Imo should reduce the war fronts. The government is fighting everybody and every institution. And arresting, detaining and arraigning Imo Citizens at random. Imo is not known for all these. The governor should change style and be focused.
In his response to Okorocha, Uzodimma, through the State Commissioner for Information and strategy, Declan Emelumba, said that the former governor was only seeking for relevance having lost all confidence from citizens of the State after his eight years tenure.
“Was the report credited to Uzodimma, what blackmail is he talking about when the source of the story was quoted, he is only seeking for relevance having failed the people of the State,” Uzodimma said.
