Okorocha blames Uzodinma for rumoured suspension, says gov gatecrashed into APC

Former Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo Central at the National Assembly, Rochas Okorocha, has blamed the state governor, Hope Uzodimma, of trying to blackmail him out of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) following his rumoured suspension on Tuesday.

The face off between the duo took a new dimension with the purported suspension of Okorocha and the sealing off of his hotel and school in Owerri by the Uzodimma administration.

Though the APC denied suspending Okorocha, the ex-governor, in a statement issued by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, on Wednesday and made available to Ripples Nigeria, said Uzodinma is behind the alleged suspension and that he can’t be “blackmailed out of the ruling party.”

According to Okorocha, Uzodinma was.never a.member of the APC, and only joined the party after the Supreme Court judgment that declared him governor.

The statement accused the state government of coming up with the fake news that Okorocha had defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after Okorocha reportedly led other APC chieftains in the state to the ruling party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

“Governor Hope Uzodinma cannot and will not blackmail Senator Rochas Okorocha out of the All Progressives Congress. Governor Uzodinma was behind the fake story of Senator Rochas Okorocha leaving the APC for the PDP, last Monday,” the statement began.

“He had come up with the fake story of Okorocha leaving APC because the National Secretariat of the Party had set up a reconciliation Committee.

“And also because of Okorocha’s visit to the National office of the party with men and women who had sacrificed all they had to make APC the party to beat in Imo and with National Assembly members who have the mandate of the people.

“Governor Uzodinma was never a member of APC. He joined APC after he had been announced governor by the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court had given judgement that the candidate of APC in the 2019 governorship election was Uche Nwosu. Showing that, Chief Uzodinma was a gatecrasher in APC.

“Yet, he does not want to be humble about that. He wants those who labored for APC to leave the party for him. There would not have been APC in Imo today if Okorocha didn’t take the political risk he took to make Imo APC.”