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Amidst the raging intra-party squabble rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha on Tuesday insisted that he was still in charge of the party and that he had not lost its structure to the opposition – the Coalition Alliance.
Governor Okorocha, however, indicated that he was having a difficult time controlling the party structure, but maintained that the difficulty emanated from the party’s national headquarters led by John Odigie-Oyegun, which, he said, was persecuting him because of his opposition to their tenure elongation attempt.
This was the crux of the governor’s chat with journalists in Owerri as part of activities marking the 2018 Democracy Day celebration.
He said, “I am being persecuted because I stoutly opposed the elongation of the tenure of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the National Chairman of the party, for another four years, and he (Oyegun) decided to take a pound of flesh on me by supporting the dissidents who met and organised kangaroo congresses, wrote results, and forwarded same to Abuja for ratification.
“We are still in charge of APC in the state and we have not lost the party structures in this state.”
He boasted that his record of achievements in the past seven years had surpassed those of all his predecessors put together.
According to him, while the security situation in the state had tremendously improved in the past seven years of his administration, his urban renewal programme had tremendously transformed Owerri, the state capital, into a modern city which now ranks third in development in the country after Lagos and Abuja.
He pointed out that his free education programme had not only alleviated poverty in the state but has also provoked the establishment of more schools.
He noted that N15 billion had been invested in the reconstruction of brand new post-primary schools in the state.
The governor said his successors would not need to build new schools in the state in the next 20 years since he had already completed a total of 261 new ones, while over 1,000 kilometres of roads had been tarred in the 27 LGAs, and ICT centres installed to promote computer literacy among council staff.
Continuing, the governor said he had provided a total of 540-bed hospitals in all the LGAs as part of measures to promote healthcare delivery services for the people.
He gave an assurance that the president and the vice president would soon be in the state to commission over 100 completed projects.
He said a 3,500 capacity prison structure would be constructed in the state while the police headquarters would be moved to a conducive place in Owerri.
