Since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha the winner of the governorship election in Imo State, there has been a lot of statement from different quarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that Governor Rochas Okorocha and his allies were moving some government property to their personal houses; converting government vehicles to personal vehicles.
This has
prompted Mr Onwuasoanye FCC Jones, the Media and Publicity Director of
Ugwumba Uche Nwosu Campaign Organisation to shade some light to some of
the property Okorocha owned and to state unequivocally that Rochas
Okorocha was worth not less than fifty billion Naira before he became
governor of Imo state. And, he didn’t end his write up without taking a
swipe at the Incoming Governor, Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
Read what Mr Onwuasoanya Jones wrote:
Governor
Okorocha was worth nothing less than 50 billion Naira before he became
governor in 2011. As a growing lad, Okorocha’s motorcade could keep us
staring in awe for more than 20 minutes anytime he passes through Akokwa
on his way to Ogboko or anywhere else. He was already one of the
biggest property owners in Nigeria before his swearing in as governor of
Imo State on May 29th, 2011.
In Owerri alone, Owelle already
owned the Spibat construction yard, the two Lamonde (Now Willow Wood)
Hotels, Lamonde Printing Press, which was the biggest printing press in
Imo State at that time. None of these properties were sold before he
became governor. He already owned the Rochas Plaza, the Rochas
Convention Center along Ugwu Orji, a number of properties in the New
Owerri Area of Owerri, including his private residence around Concorde
Hotel.
Governor Okorocha owned the land on which he built the
Rochas Foundation Schools along Onitsha Road in Owerri and also owned
another large expanse of land on which he built the Ogboko branch of the
same school. Anyone who has been around for the past twenty years would
remember the long open buses that used to convey the Rochas Foundation
children to and from school.
This same Rochas had run for the
presidency of this country twice. In 2003, he ran almost successfully
for the ANPP ticket, before the leaders of that Party, afraid that
Rochas was going to win with a landslide should they allow open voting,
decided to go by a controversial consensus arrangement that produced
General Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate.
In 2007,
he left the Action Alliance which he founded to join the PDP, less than
two weeks to their presidential convention and beat many sitting
governors and others, including the Late Abubakar Rimi to come second in
that national convention. Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji
Attahiru Baffarawa has recently come out to confess that Rochas actually
won the 2003 presidential primaries of the ANPP.
Before 2011,
Rochas already had more than 5000 children of the poorest of the poor
enrolled in his Rochas Foundation Schools across the six geopolitical
zones in the country. He also had hundreds of children he was training
in the university. Rochas was already a household name before Emeka
Ihedioha sneaked into the House of Representatives, all thanks to the
intervention of Atiku Abubakar and other Abuja bigwigs after he was
trounced in the primaries of the PDP.
Rochas was already dining
with world leaders long before 1999 and commanded a lot of respect
across Nigeria as a result of his philanthropic gestures and wide
political contacts. Recently, I saw the funeral brochure of his mother
who died sometime around 2008 or thereabouts, and he got condolence
messages from more than fifty countries across Europe, America’s, Asia
and Africa.
Today, some riffraffs who cannot qualify to serve as
PAs to Okorocha’s least paid PA before he became governor, are
disturbing the internet with annoying posts about missing State
government properties. What in the world does Imo State have that will
impress Rochas so much that he would want to take them?
By the
way, do people remember how the Imo State Government House looked like
before Governor Okorocha took over? That place was like a poultry farm,
today, it stands out as one of the best Government Houses in the entire
Federation.
It is obvious that the PDP is planning to loot some government properties and are desperately seeking to divert attention by putting it on Governor Okorocha. They make themselves appear very silly with such falsehoods, because no reasonable person takes them seriously.
Source:- Nairaland Forum
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