By BARBARA KALU
Senator Hope Uzodimma (Imo West) has dissociated himself from the result sheets of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State purportedly recovered by the police from four suspects in Abuja last Saturday. The said documents, according to the police, are in respect of the May 5, 2018 Ward Congresses in Imo State.
In a statement in Abuja on Sunday by the Director General of the Hope Uzodimma Campaign Organisation (HUCO), Hon. Christopher Osuala, the Senator also disowned Engineer Innocent Ikpamezie who claimed to be the Senator’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Electoral Matters.
Osuala maintained in the statement that as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “there is no provision for the Senator to appoint a SSA on Electoral Matters and he never did. All staff are employed and seconded to Senators by the National Assembly Service Commission”
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the press conference by the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) of the Nigeria Police Force, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jimoh Moshood during which he paraded some persons for purportedly stealing materials meant for congresses in Imo State.
“One of the said suspects – Engineer Innocent Ikpamezie who claimed to be a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Electoral Matters to Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, is not the Senator’s staff.
As a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there is no provision for the Senator to appoint a SSA on Electoral Matters and he never did. All staff are employed and seconded to Senators by the National Assembly Service Commission”.
The Director General noted that the desperation of the Imo state Governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha to discredit the ward congresses that were held in Imo State on May 5, 2018, obviously manifested in this apparent concoction.
“It is clear that Governor Okorocha continues to oppose Senator Hope Uzodimma’s entry into the All Progressives Congress (APC) and had vowed openly on public media to stop the Senator’s participation in APC’s activities, otherwise how can one justify the facts that:
- It was Governor Okorocha and his aides who reportedly arrested the so- called Senator’s aide with the others in a hotel and hurriedly took them to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) where they were immediately transferred to the Force Headquarters Abuja and a press conference hurriedly organised without reaching the Senator to find out whether the alleged SSA on Electoral Maters was his staff.
- The electoral materials reportedly recovered from the said aide and the others have nothing to do with the Senatorial District of Senator Hope Uzodimma as they are electoral documents for Local Government Areas in Owerri Senatorial District. Senator Hope Uzodimma represents Imo West which is Orlu Senatorial District.
- It is also clear that the APC in Imo State through the State Chairman has openly stated that ward congresses were concluded and the electoral materials and result sheets returned to the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
- Since Governor Okorocha started shouting about missing documents, no organ of the APC at the National or Imo State had reported that their electoral documents were missing.
“Where then, did the Governor and his cohorts concoct the purported electoral documents from?”, he stated.
He said it was now “manifestly clear that Okorocha’s desperation to cancel the Imo State ward congresses had led him towards this clear path of shame and dishonor as the governor’s continued desperation to”install his son in-law (Uche Nwosu) as the next governor of Imo State is the reason for him to go to this length to seek to discredit the ward congresses that have been upheld to be free and fair”.
Osuala appealed to the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun to call Governor Rochas Okorocha to order as his continued intransigence and orchestrations were capable of destroying the credibility and unity of purpose of APC in Imo State, adding that “Senator Hope Uzodimma joined the APC to help the party repair the damage done to it in Imo State by Governor Rochas Okorocha”.