How 1,000 Armed Thugs Descended on Me – Okorocha; Not True Say Witnesses |The Source

By Chidi Levi

This is not the best of times for former Imo state governor and Senator representing Imo West in the Nigerian Senate, Senate, Rochas Okorocha.

He has been having a running battle with his successor and fellow party man, Governor Hope Uzodinma. Both leaders belong to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC but lead different faction of the party in Imo.

The former Governor Sunday gave what he called graphic details of how 1000 armed thugs, allegedly, sponsored by the Imo state government descended on him in the capital, Owerri.

But eye witnesses and the video from the scene do not support the claim of 1,000 thugs who descended on him. An eye witness told this magazine that on the contrary, the former Governor was the one who came with a good number of people, and along with his son-in-law challenged the Security at the gate, and ordered them to break the gate to the Estate.

Okorocha was, however, silent on his arrest by the police for illegally unsealing Royal Palm Estate owned by his wife, Nkechi.

The Estate was seized and sealed on Friday by the Imo state government on the strength of the recommendation of a judicial panel of inquiry charged with recovering Imo properties and assets in wrong hands. The  Whitepaper has been released and gazetted.

Okorocha stormed the Estate, Sunday, in company with his son in-law, Uche Nwosu and some of his supporters and broke the gate to the Estate and unsealed.

But in a statement entitled: “The Unexpected, Unprovoked and Unwarranted Attack on Senator Rochas Okorocha” and signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Sam Onwuemeodo said: “More than 1000 thugs, armed to teeth with knives and guns and led by Chinasa Nwaneri, Governor Hope Uzodinma’s Special Adviser on Special Duties today, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021, with the backing of armed policemen from Government House, attacked the former governor of the State and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Senator Rochas Okorocha’s Convoy.

“They attacked and damaged all the Vehicles in his Convoy. They also attacked his personal  aides. Senator Okorocha was with only his personal aides when the thugs unleashed the attack”

According to the statement, had Okorocha anticipated he would be attacked, he would have been accompanied by more aides than he came it:

“Okorocha has the strongest political structure in the state and teaming followers in the State. If he had expected the attacked, he would not have moved with his personal aides alone.

“Okorocha has never been a violent man. This planned attack but unprovoked and unwarranted, has opened a new, but ugly chapter in the politics of the State”

Royal Palm Estate seizure by the Uzodinma led- government came on the heels of its recovery of Eastern Palm University which the former governor established in his home town, Ogboko, in Ideato local government area of the state.

While Okorocha insists the University is jointly owned by his Rochas Foundation and the state with the former having 90 per centage equity shares, the Imo state government is emphatic that the former governor built the school with public funds aside the National Universities Commission, NUC, licensing it a state owned university.

The Government, therefore, say the University belongs to the state and not to Okorocha. And to consolidate its ownership, the Imo State Government last week renamed it K.O Mbadiwe University, KOMU, in honour of the late flamboyant politician of the first and second Republics, Chief K.O Mbadiwe who hailed from the area.