VON DG anoints Okorocha’s plot to leave APC, says S’East’ll be better for it
Clearer indications have emerged on the observed total loss of state ruling party control by the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
This came from the comments of the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, who noted in Abuja that the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, is free to leave the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying “Enough is enough”.
It would be recalled that the national chairman of APC, Chief john Oyegun had last week made it clear that there had been rising and convincing voices of party leaders in the zone that are not encouraging on Okorocha’s activities in recent times.
However, explaining more at the National Secretariat of the APC, in Abuja, on Monday, Okechukwu said “the APC was now better positioned to make a greater impact on the South-East with or without the governor”.
It would be recalled that Okorocha’s big loss came from the recent congresses where all his loyalists in each of the 27 local governments of Imo State lost grip of party structures into the waiting hands of both Senators Hope Uzodinma (Orlu Zone) and Ifeanyi Ararume (Okigwe Zone).
While expressing confidence that the APC would consolidate on its power come 2019 by winning widely, VON boss averred that “At least, there are more than 60 political parties now, Okorocha is free to join any of his choice. Though we are not forcing him to leave, what we are saying is we have taken the leadership out of his hands because he was playing God.
“He was personalising power, so the majority of the leadership and membership of the APC in the South-East said, ‘thank you, so far so good enough is enough.’
“So, what I am just saying is that he was at liberty to leave the APC but let nobody anywhere thinks that the APC will lose because we have retrieved the party from him. No, the APC is the winner as a political party.
“Mr. President is going to get more votes; we are going to win more parliamentary seats, more governorship seats without him.
“In my place, there is a saying that when a bird is dancing on the main road it means there is a drummer in the bush and I am pointing at the drummer of all that is happening in the South-East. But luckily, the majority, over 90 per cent of the leadership and membership of the APC in the South-East has said enough is enough to our former leader, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.”
A top official of the party in Abuja confided in Business Hilights Abuja Bureau chief that “With the look of things in Imo State and the mounting united opposition against the governor, I don’t think the incoming party new chairman; either Comrade Oshiomhole or any other, can have much time for Okorocha.
This according to political watchers means that the political validity of vociferous Governor Rochas Okorocha in APC at state level may have expired after all.
