The outgoing All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has described the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, as a politician who has lost the confidence and support of his people.
Odigie-Oyegun, who dismissed insinuations of witch-hunting from the embattled governor, said that he had lost the support of his people and should not blame his predicaments on any member of the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Okorocha had claimed that Odigie-Oyegun was on a revenge mission, using the party’s congresses in his state as a payback for the role he played in ensuring that the NWC did not get the failed tenure extension.
Odigie-Oyegun, who spoke at a press conference to officially withdraw from the national chairmanship race in Abuja, urged Okorocha to examine the reason “there are united voice” against him.
He argued that Okorocha “wasn’t the strongest force behind the objection to tenure elongation, so why is his case different? I don’t think it is necessary to go into the details.
“Well, the processes are still on and it is not good to answer you in details, but the answer lies in one fact; that he is not the only one who opposed the so-called tenure elongation, how come he is the only one being witch-hunted?
“When you look at the totality of the events in that state, I think you can get a clearer picture of what is going on there. There is a united voice calling for a different way of doing things so to speak,” Odigie-Oyegun said.
At a separate press briefing, former Secretary to the National Convention Planning Committee, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, regretted the manner the Imo governor has handled the party and the state generally in the past years.
Uwajumuogu took a swipe at Governor Okorocha, stressing that APC members from the South East zone are ashamed of him.
“Based on the fact, 95 per cent of the indigenes of Imo State and indeed South East members of APC are not happy with what is happening in Imo under Governor Okorocha.
“Imo State has become a basket of fraud. South East indigenes are ashamed that the only state that we have under the ruling APC is being run the way we have seen in the last few years.
“There was no choice than for me to detach myself from that government. I am happy now that I have resigned, maybe it would be clear that the convention slated to elect national officers will go smoothly,” he said.
