Samuel Akpan, The CableNG
Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo state, says Hope Uzodimma, his successor, has declared war against him.
The development comes barely 48 hours after the senator accused Uzodimma of displaying criminality and thuggery in governance.
The former governor was arrested on Sunday for unsealing a property seized by the Imo state government.
He was later released after the intervention of the south-east governors forum.
In a statement signed by Sam Onwuemeodo, his special adviser on media, Okorocha accused Uzodimma of pulling down the gate and fence of Reach FM, a radio station said to belong to the former governor.
He also accused Eyinnaya Onuegbu, commissioner for lands in Imo, of claiming that the property was built on what should have served as a road for residents.
“The building housing the Reach FM Radio was acquired by Senator Rochas Okorocha about twenty-five years ago. And subsequent administrations, both military and civilian, had never raised any issue about the property where the radio station is located,” the statement reads.
“And that untenable claim by Onuegbu was to justify another nauseating action. Before the radio station, you get two hotels and six other buildings in front.
“Beside and behind the station, you also have several other buildings. And there is no way a building at the centre of other buildings, including hotels, could have been on the road.
“The pulling down of the fence and gate of the radio station, with indigenes and non-indigenes of the state working there to earn their living, had come two days after the same people had invaded the Royal Palm Hotel with armed thugs and men in police uniform, who claimed to be from the Government House.
“They had earlier looted the hotel under the guise of sealing it.
“To all intents and purposes, Chief Uzodinma has used his governorship to create a new Imo State where bloody clashes, killings, thuggery, kidnappings, and tension, now pervade or reign.
“Aside Okorocha, other Imo people had either been attacked, arrested or detained and homes and offices invaded like that of NLC in Owerri.
“We are not expecting these attacks occasioned by envy, vendetta, conspiracy, hatred, and lack of ideas for good governance to stop. But we shall only continue to inform the public whenever they carry out any fresh attack.
“But obviously, Governor Uzodinma shall not win. What is important in every war is who wins and who loses. Governor Uzodinma cannot win, because no one wins war on the basis of falsehood and deceit.”
