How Okorocha ‘hijacked’ Buhari’s visit for son-in-law
President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Imo State, last Tuesday, might have come and gone, but the gimmicks and intrigues that played out during the visit are still causing ripples in the camp of the All Progressives Congress across the country.
The development, according to The Point’s investigation, is also helping to further deepen the crisis rocking the ruling party in the state.
Buhari, who had earlier visited Abia State, where he inaugurated a power plant before coming to Imo, was driven straight to the Hero’s Square to meet Governor Rochas Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who is the gubernatorial candidate of Action Alliance, and his supporters.
It was learnt that the crowd at the Hero’s Square was staged to convince President Buhari that Okorocha’s son-in law had more supporters than the APC gubernatorial candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma, whose teeming supporters had arrived the Dan Anyiam stadium, ready to receive the president.
Rather than move the president to the stadium, venue of the mega rally, the governor and the President’s protocol, it was gathered, directed the President to the Hero’s Square where Nwosu and his supporters were already waiting to receive him.
It was learnt that the President was also delayed, deliberately, for another one hour after having his lunch with the governor and his family at the Hero’s apartment.
A close source at the Government House, Owerri, who craved anonymity, disclosed to our correspondent that Okorocha, while introducing Nwosu to the president, told him that the “young man was the one denied the APC ticket.”
The source said that as part of the delay tactics, the programmes were lined up at the Hero’s Square to delay the President from moving to the rally ground at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, where a mammoth crowd had gathered, as early as 10 am, waiting to welcome the President.
According to the source, as soon as the President finished at the Hero’s apartment, he was driven straight to the Palace of the Chairman of Imo Traditional Rulers’ Council, Eze Agunwa Ohiri, where he was also delayed, deliberately, for several hours.
While addressing the entourage in his palace, Eze Ohiri told the President that the exotic palace was built by Gov. Okorocha and lamented that the President could not visit the state since 2015 to inaugurate the project.
Endorsing the president for another term along with other traditional rulers, he also used the opportunity to market the governor’s achievements.
The Point gathered that as the delay tactics played out smoothly, President Buhari, who had arrived Owerri since morning, was only able to get to the stadium at 5 pm, when the waiting crowd had already gone weary, with many leaving the venue in droves.
Our correspondent gathered that those waiting endlessly at the Stadium for Buhari’s arrival included former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi; APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole; former Military Governor of Lagos State, Buba Marwa; and other APC chieftains, who decided to shun Okorocha’s entertainment and had stayed back at the stadium, probably as a result of the misunderstanding they had with Okorocha, particularly during the party’s primaries.
Rather than follow the President’s entourage to check unnecessary delay, especially at the places where the President made detours, they inadvertently allowed the Governor to have the opportunity of proving to the President that Uche Nwosu was the popular candidate. And the trick worked out, as this formed the President’s speech at the stadium, a source close to the government disclosed.
“They allowed the governor to have his way as the President was apparently carried away by the impression that Uche Nwosu had a greater number of people supporting him,” the source told our correspondent.
‘Buhari has fully endorsed AA candidates’
Also, the AA senatorial candidate for Owerri zone, Chyma Anthony, confirmed that the President’s speech at the stadium “was a call to vote for AA because the people have embraced AA.”
“So, the President saying that people should vote whoever they want favours the AA. This shows that the President has endorsed us fully,” Anthony said.
Another AA supporter, who pleaded not to be mentioned, said Buhari spent over three hours with Uche Nwosu and his supporters while he only spent 45 minutes with the APC candidate and their supporters.
“Also, if you watch closely, the President did not want to hand over the flag to the APC flag bearer until Adams Oshiomhole tapped him to do so,” he disclosed.
While supporters of AA said that they stole the day as President Buhari had witnessed that they had more supporters supporting their candidate, Uche Nwosu, when the President visited the Hero’s Square, those supporting Uzodinma in APC claimed that Okorocha delayed the President, taking him to AA rally and Eze Imo’s
palace.
Effect of Buhari’s delayed arrival
A chieftain of the APC from Njaba Local Government area said that the President’s delayed arrival at the stadium killed the enthusiasm of the event.
However, some political analysts who reacted to the script that played out at the rally accused the governor and the president of anti-party activity.
An analyst, Simon Chiaka, queried, “How could the governor take the president to another rally that is not an APC rally, delay the President for several hours only for the President to arrive at the venue of the APC rally to admonish the people to vote according to their conscience and across party lines? People may view the speech as a smart one but this is actually a deceitful act.”
Meanwhile, the APC flag bearer in the state, Senator Uzodinma, has vowed to liberate the state from the grip of
darkness.
Addressing a mammoth crowd at the APC campaign at Nguru Sports Centre, Nguru, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State at the weekend, Uzodinma accused Gov. Okorocha’s administration of leaving the people impoverished and vowed to liberate them from pain and misery.
He decried what he described as Okorocha’s ignoble pattern of governance, saying this had rather impoverished the people of the state and put many in severe pain and suffering.
He said he had to join his brothers in the struggle to wrestle power from Okorocha, whom, he said, was at the verge of destroying the APC and the state, maintaining that greed and ‘familiocracy’ were the bane of the governor’s regime.
He assured the people of Mbaise of his readiness to revamp the Paint industry, which, he disclosed, the late Chief Sam Mbakwe constructed with about £2million.
The senator also accused Okorocha of making the industry moribund despite deceiving the people that he had revamped the structure.
He also pledged to ensure that infrastructure was put in place to enable the people of the area to achieve their full potential.
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, described Governor Okorocha as “inhuman and uncivilised.”
“You can imagine a scenario where you choose to help your friend and literally sacrificed 26 years to assist him to realise his dream. Having done all these, at a time you have an opportunity to use your wealth of experience to serve your people, the same man you have given everything rises against you. Not on the basis of incompetence but because of greed and inordinate ambition to remain in power through the back door,” he said.
Madumere also decried the excruciating pain inflicted on Imo people by Okorocha through his draconian anti-people policies that only benefitted his family.
He averred that with his education and exposure to the best democracies in the world, he could not stand by and watch Imo reduced to a “banana
republic.”
He reiterated his support for Uzodinma, declaring him as the choice of Owerri zone APC leaders, who were with him in the struggle to deliver the state.
He said, “Rather than outrightly lose our whole cow, it is better we cut out a part. Shall we continue to allow the reign of impunity.
“We reject impunity, we reject intimidation, we reject monumental greed. I reject anti people policy and cannot stand aloof and watch a continual perpetration of injustice and family driven government.”
He called on the people of Mbaise to cast their votes for President Buhari, Senator Uzodinma and other APC candidates in the forthcoming elections.
Madumere urged Owerri zone to support Uzodinma, saying he had led the fight to actualise the Owerri zone agenda.
“Uzodinma’s emergence was an act of fate,” he said, adding that the surest way to produce an Owerri zone Governor “is by voting him into office.”
The Chairman of the party, Chief Marcellinus Nlemigbo; Director-General of the Hope Uzodinma Campaign, Chief Cosmos Iwu; and other party executive members were present.
Also the Deputy Governorship candidate, Prof. Placid Njoku; House of Representatives candidate for Aboh-Ngor Okpala federal constituency, Chief Blyden Amajirionwu; House of Assembly candidate for Aboh Mbaise, Hon. Chimezie Njoku; were all present at the rally.
