The Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has warned the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lanre Issa-Onilu to steer clear of the state chapter of the party.
According to the governor, the party spokesman and his ilk have already done enough damage to the party by imposing a member of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governorship candidate.
In a Monday statement through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, the governor said that the state chapter would not condone any further damage from Issa-Onilu and his ilk.
The statement read in part, “It has become necessary to appeal to the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu, and those behind him, to please leave the Imo State chapter of the party alone after inflicting deep cut on the party by imposing a known PDP member as the governorship candidate.
“Twenty-four hours to the presidential rally in Owerri, Mr. Issa-Onilu had no other contribution to make than to raise false alarms, and making disturbing claims that APC has removed Governor Rochas Okorocha as the campaign coordinator. He added that APC has alerted the police and DSS of plots by Okorocha and Uche Nwosu to disrupt the rally.
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“It is unfortunate that in their effort to justify whatever they had eaten over the governorship ticket, they have decided to be callous about the whole thing. Otherwise, they would have known that the rally is Okorocha’s event.
“In any case, Governor Okorocha has never been the party’s state campaign coordinator. He is rather President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign coordinator as he was among those inaugurated by the President, and Issa-Onilu and his group cannot remove who they never appointed. So, his claim was borne out of ignorance.
“To say the least, Imo is calm. Governor Okorocha is duly in-charge. The presidential rally will hold, and peacefully too. They had raised that false alarm to discourage the president from attending the rally like they did during the presidential rally for youths and women.
“The point is that truth lives while lies do not live. These Abuja-based politicians have fed them with lies and they took or bought the lies wholesale. Otherwise, how would someone think that a man who went to the Senate through the court would now know Imo Politics more than a man who has won two governorship elections, and on the platforms of parties that were not in power at the centre?”