Imo State Governorship Candidate of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Hope Uzodinma, says the embattled
Governor of the State, Rochas Okorocha is the real mole in the APC.
He said this barely 24 hours after he lambasted
Okorocha, declaring the governor “politically dead”.
Uzodinma, in a statement issued in
Abuja on Saturday, said it was laughable that the Imo State Governor who had
all long worked against the interest of the APC in the state, South East and
indeed, Nigeria, would suddenly turn around to accuse others of being moles in
the party.
He noted that events preceding the governorship election in the state clearly
showed that Okorocha was against the interest of APC, citing the Zonal Youth
and Women Presidential Campaign rally, the APC Presidential rally in Imo State
and the adoption of another political platform-Action Alliance (AA) which he
mobilized state resources to get some members of the APC in Imo State to defect
to, in pursuit of his son-in-law’s governorship ambition.
“The clearest evidence of this
sabotage was on live television when the result of Ideato Local Government Area
(Okorocha home Local Government Area) 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 Local
Government Area (LGA) Collation Centre?”, he asked.
The Governorship candidate stated
that 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?”.
Uzodinma said Okorocha was simply
reaping the result of his anti-party activities “but instead of accepting his
fate, he is busy looking for whom to latch on as a drowning man”.
On the purported report that he had
felicitated with Emeka Ihedioha over the latter’s declaration as winner of the
state governorship election, the APC Governorship Candidate 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”.
He said it is the handiwork of mischief makers and detractors wondering 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.
Debunking the
claim that he (Uzodinma) ensured that only his supporters were made agents of
the APC during the Governorship Elections in the South East, the Senator said
that was a white lie from Okorocha, as the agents were duly approved and sent
by the National headquarters of the party but that Okorocha’s hired thugs
chased them away.
Uzodinma
thanked his supporters and appealed to them to remain steadfast, assuring them
that the APC led-Federal Government under the mature leadership of President
Muhammadu Buhari would not abandon Imo State in the scheme of things.
