Okorocha's reaction
came days after the Deputy Speaker said he will win the Imo Governorship race
in 2015.
Okorocha who spoke
through his media aide, Sam Onwuemedo, said Ihedioha has the hurdle to defeat
over 15 governorship aspirants in the PDP party primaries before he could be a candidate in the next
elections.
The statement
obtained by this blog reads
“ The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon.
Emeka Ihedioha was quoted in the media especially in the print media, to have
made the above statements concerning the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas
Okorocha, with regard to the 2015 governorship race in the state.“In the reports too, the Mbaise-born Deputy Speaker also accused the State Government of selling the Imo Transport Corporation (ITC) and Adapalm.
“Against the backdrop of all these, we take the liberty to exercise our right of reply, especially when it is remembered that the Deputy Speaker had made a similar claim last December.
“First and foremost, Hon. Ihedioha did not say anything strange or new. He is also not alone on this claim. Other aspirants in all the political parties have continued to make the same claim on how they will defeat Governor Okorocha in 2015. And for the more than 15 guber aspirants in the state to be talking about how they would defeat one man in the state shows how powerful Governor Okorocha is. He has become the man to beat. And the truth of the matter is that Ihedioha or any other aspirant in Imo cannot beat Okorocha in 2015.
“These aspirants including Ihedioha were also together in 2011 including the incumbent Governor then and Okorocha came and subdued all of them to emerge triumphant. If they could not scratch Okorocha in 2011 when they had the “Yam and the Knife” concerning Imo governorship, is it in 2015 when Okorocha must have taken delivery of all the “political knives and yam” in Imo politics.
“Hon. Ihedioha is an aspirant at the moment and not yet a candidate and therefore is not in a position to defeat Okorocha. He should have first claimed that he would defeat the other governorship aspirants in his party, including Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, Hon. Bethel Amadi, Senator Chris Anyanwu, Chief Humphery Anumudu, and others, in the PDP primary, before talking about who he would defeat in the 2015 guber election in the state.
“In one of the reports he boasted that he would knock out the Imo Governor in 2015. The Deputy Speaker should have known that the phrase “Knock-out” is alien to democracy. Democracy is not a boxing or wrestling contest, but a civil exercise that warrants going to the poll to vote in a free and fair election. The PDP and its chieftains should begin to delete certain undemocratic vocabularies in their psyche, knowing full well that the nation’s democracy is growing.
“Again, Okorocha has neither sold ITC nor Adapalm. For 12 years of the PDP administration, in the state Adapalm and ITC could not work, which resulted to the workers owed arrears of salary for years and with the companies not making a dime for the state Government. But today, the government had taken some steps to make the two companies work and for the first time in several years, Adapalm could earn billions of Naira for the state Government and the workers paid regularly.
“If the two companies had been sold, the Government would not have constituted Boards to oversee the activities of both the management and staff of the companies. Restructuring the management of the two companies including bringing experts, to make them work efficiently and gainfully in the overall interest of Imo people does not mean selling them. We challenge Hon. Ihedioha to produce evidence to back his claim since he could easily lay hand on the documents by virtue of his position.
“Finally, it has become very imperative to inform the governorship aspirants in the state that laboring to scratch the overwhelming popularity of Governor Okorocha among Imo people will not work. It will end up being efforts in futility. It is also no longer advisable and fashionable to make Okorocha their individual “manifestoes”. They should tell Imo people why they want to be governor.
“In 2015, Imo people will come out to elect their governor. Frivolous propaganda has become obsolete in Imo politics. Imo people have overgrown such gimmicks. And they will have the final say on who becomes their governor in 2015. And there is nothing anybody can do about that.”
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