Ihedioha cautions Okorocha over comments against him, urges ex-governor to learn from forerunners

Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha has appealed to monarchs and other personalities in the state to ask his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha (APC, Imo West), to stop insulting and demeaning the office of Imo governor.

The appeal was prompted by the daily accusations and counter-accusations between Okorocha and Ihedioha over issues of governance and how finances were managed during the former’s tenure as governor from 2011 to May 28, 2019.

Ihedioha, through his Special Assistant (Research), Ogubundu Nwadike, yesterday, stated that timely intervention by the monarchs and other well-meaning citizens of the state would bring the former governor back to his senses.

Disclosing that Okorocha’s predecessors, Achike Udenwa (1999 -2007) and Ikedi Ohakim (2007-2011), never attempted the magnitude of vituperations the senator was pouring on his office, he advised the senator to borrow a leaf from his predecessors.

The statement read in part: “It, therefore, requires traditional rulers and their subjects, religious leaders and laity, intellectuals, professionals, traders, artisans, youths and students to speak out aloud and overtly condemn the poor attitude of the ex-governor, Rochas Okorocha, towards the current governor, Emeka Ihedioha. A stitch in time saves nine.”

Noting that Okorocha was the 14th governor of Imo, the statement observed: “No governor before Rochas had heated up the polity and made the state ungovernable because he vacated office for a new governor as Rochas is doing.

“Imo people and the wider society must know that since the March 9, 2019 governorship election and probably even earlier, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has held the Government of Imo State hostage.”

During the last general election in the state, Okorocha’s bid to instal his son in-law, Uche Nwosu, on Imo people fell on its face. This might have brewed his ire for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government led by Ihedioha.

“Imo people can ill-afford to have Rochas create the unhealthy precedence of an out-gone governor holding his successor to ransom. The danger in that is that it’s capable of causing avoidable breach of the rights of individuals in accordance with the dictates of the law.

“There is a limit to every right. Freedom of speech is a right, but defamatory remarks and publications are limits to the right of freedom of speech,” the statement added.