By Thompson Agu, Abuja
The seeming verbal cross fire between Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and former APGA chairman and now Senator Representing Anambra Central, Senator Victor Umeh has entered another stage with the latter launching more vituperative attacks on the former. According to Trumpeta correspondent,
barely 24 hours after Umeh opened up that he regrets making Okorocha Imo State Governor in 2011, and stating that “God will impeach” the governor for daring to remove his deputy, Okorocha fired back by asking the senator to justify his stay at the upper legislative assembly prompting Umeh to hit back with scathing remarks about the person of the number one citizen of Imo State.
At a press briefing in Abuja, Umeh took Okorocha to the cleaners with uncouth words.
The full details of Umeh’s briefing on the aspect of Okorocha that has gone viral online states as follows, “ I commented on his moving against his current Deputy Governor to get him impeached and I felt it was cautionable on his part, it was morally wrong because Okorocha passed through me to become governor.
“I was National Chairman of APGA in 2011 when he contested for this office. I know the road to the Douglas in Owerri, it was a very difficult road we passed through as the National Chairman of the party then, the Deputy Governor that he’s speaking against was his Chief of Staff, whom they have been together for about 20 years before he contested that election and during the time we were campaigning in Owerri, Imo State, I was there myself, this current Deputy Governor was arrested and detained for 3 weeks, because he was accused of arranging people that attacked Obasanjo when he came to Owerri, you know PDP was in charge at that time.
“I had to do series of Press conferences, taking on the Inspector General of Police then, to get Madumere released, eventually few days to election, he was let off. And when we went to that election, we won. APGA won of course, there was a twist, the result was not declared for the simple reason, they didn’t want APGA and Okorocha to take the victory. We had to go into very serious advocacy. I was on television all the time, I had to go to INEC with Senator Chris Anyanwu and Chief Martin Agbaso, to make a presentation at INEC that led to the cancellation of election in Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta LGA, a repeat for Mbaitoli LGA where the twist happened and then Ngor Okpala where the election never took place it was after that presentation that INEC ordered a supplementary election.
We had 46,000 lead after those cancellations and a rerun, a supplementary election was scheduled.
“Okorocha refused to take part in the supplementary poll, instead he headed to the Federal High Court, Abuja, to stop the election from taking place. I moved my people to Imo State with myself. It was at that place that I insisted that APGA must take part in supplementary election because that was the only way we could get that victory finally achieved.
“He did not see it himself, him that is Governor, he opposed the supplementary poll, he was in court but because I said APGA will participate in this supplementary poll, because I knew that was the only way out. If we hadn’t held that supplementary poll, 28,000 votes for PDP that was cancelled in Ohaji Egbema would have been added to PDP. so he was very naïve, he didn’t see these things we drove it and went to that supplementary where I also served as a local government collation agent in Mbaitoli.
“We didn’t have the understanding on how to conclude the process, we were there and Mbaitoli was among the most problematic local government I had to go there with a tag and stayed overnight and ensure that we come out with the result that gave us final victory.
“So it was very heartrending for me to see some of the things, he did and again, before he emerged as a candidate, there was an agreement and I was a witness to the agreement he signed with Chief Martin Agbaso, I still have the original copy with me. Where Okorocha dictated the terms of that agreement, he conceded the leadership of their party to Chief Agbaso and also said Chief Agbaso should nominate the Deputy. Chief Agbaso now nominated his younger brother, Jude Agbaso, as his Deputy. We went to the election, as soon as he won, he changed the whole thing. Along the line, in 2013, he impeached Jude Agbaso who came in as the Deputy Governor on the agreement, he dictated the terms. He didn’t honour the agreement, along the line; he left APGA and went away. Leaving APGA wasn’t the greater problem, but the issue is his governance of the State.
“It’s very heart breaking for me to see a man who came very humbly answering me “yes sir”, yes sir, on getting to that office, started boning everybody, got his Deputy impeached, that was not enough for him, going through Governor’s profile, you are Journalist you have been covering activities there, he insulted religious leaders every day, including people who supported him to be Governor.
“So when he moved against his Deputy, I felt it will be guilt of silence, if people don’t call him to order. So, I had to bring him to his moral sense that what he is doing is not what a Christian should do. It is a bad record that a governor would impeach two deputy governors within his tenure in office, I told him not to do that.
Of course I expressed regret that, somebody who passed through my hands to become governor would act like this, he retorted and said, I was wasting away my time at the senate. That wasn’t the reply I expected from him.
Okorocha is a trickster and if you cannot live by the words you profess, you cannot aspire to leadership. Leadership is about honour and consistency of character. If one fails to do what he promised and get into office, its 419.
“He’s a complete trickster and I don’t want to put my energy on him, he’s already drowning man, a sinking ship in Imo State.
“He wants to make his son in-law Governor of Imo State to succeed him. When he was made Governor, Eze Madumere, was his Chief of Staff. This his son in law was his Deputy Chief of Staff. Along the line, he married his daughter and now that his going, he wants his son in-law to succeed him and deputy governor to be impeached. I think it’s the type of thing this Idi Amin did in Uganda.
A society of this level of development, cannot tolerate leaders who behave like that, who cannot see what the society wants or what the standard should be. His son in-law is from his zone in the state, when he finishes, he will foist him on the state, is that the way to run an election?
“So, I made a small remark that he should not muzzle the ox he used to thresh grain and he found it offensive, and descended on me, that I’m not doing anything here.
“You’ve been covering my activity here, have I been idle here? So, he’s the one that has been selling his governance and the reply he had to give something he had no defense to is that, I’m just wasting my time in the senate. So in answer to your question, Okorocha is a trickster and nobody should take him serious, he has 10 months from now to give account of his stewardship, that is my consolation, and reality will dawn on him.
“All the people who played roles in making him governor, all of them are his enemies today. Is that the way to provide leadership? It is when he leaves office that he will now know the different between public treasury and private treasury?
When you use public treasury and public trust to enlarge your account, by the time you leave office, people will come after you.
“Being Reckless, those who served him over the years, are the people he alienated today, they are the people who will help in investigation when the time comes.
So, he should go and take Panadol and sleep and know that, governance is a very serious business and leadership is a public trust that cannot be abused.
“You go to your village and build a private university with state resources. These things are open; you cannot convert state resources to private resources.
“It was last year, he appointed his sister, commissioner for happiness and you are all writing it? For anyone who is serious, is that the kind of intervention of governance he would provide. Even Mandela himself, seeing such thing will be crying in his grave.
“Seeing the kind of leaders we are producing in Africa. Where you play to the gallery with the plight of your people, with abandoned projects littered everywhere. Go to Imo State and see what is going on there.
27 hospitals all in the Local Government, all of them are abandoned, and he said, I’m not doing anything in the senate. I am only calling on his moral conscience to know that there are boundaries a leader cannot go. If he thinks he is a superman, he should complete the impeachment of Eze Madumere he will regret it.
“I know very soon he will run away from the process because you cannot be sleeping with somebody who knows everything about you; tomorrow you wield the stick as if the person is not a human being again. Some of these things will come to bear. So what you read was just a misplaced aggression, the man is blind in Imo State.
“I had to say so, if I didn’t tell him that, it means I that I encouraged it, having gone through my hand to become Governor, so I simply disassociated myself and asked God for forgiveness, that was what I did.
“A leader should be humble, in ascending office, if he gets into office, the office shouldn’t get into your head. If he was calling me “chair Sir”, before he became Governor, there is no reason he can make this kind of statement to me, because I was the person who was determining his fate at that time at no cost.
“Because he promised he was going to make Imo State Eldorado and that he was a very great philanthropist, training children of poor people, so is it not obtaining by false pretence? We thought we were moving together, as soon as he got in there, he became a tiger and even “chair Sir” disappeared.
“So, I had to sincerely speak out against his activities in order not to make him a model of someone who can be governor, he is a fraud governor, I’m so sorry about that.
“APGA as a party that I led for 10 yrs as chairman has won the governor of Anambra State for 12 years is on its 13th year, if you go there, you will see how the manifesto of the party have been used by the former and current governor, to develop that state.
“The place is very peaceful, working; we are doing everything to bring in international partners to aid development. You go to Imo State, what you see is a tower, Akachi Tower. Its 10 months to go.
He promised that Okigwe would look like London, then Orlu would look like New York, then Owerri would be like Washington DC, has he done that?
I’m sorry, but has he done that?
“When you want to seek opportunity to lead the people, you have to be organized and when God gives you that opportunity, you must be humble with that, it’s just that the way he’s treating people I don’t like it and called him to order as my younger brother. I’m older than him incidentally.
“So, I’m in position to advise him and know that I have so much to talk about so I’m in position to call him to order. Those agreements I have, he knowns I have them with his signature. If he talks again in the next one week, I’ll publish some of them so that he’ll know that 419 cannot be used to get leadership. It is something that out of the plight if the people, you live with and you feel something is not working well and offer yourself to be part of the solution, correction, you come out, not to use trick to take power and then leave your people despondent. That’s what he has done in Imo State. It’s a very sad commentary. Thank you!
However, a disgusted Government House Owerri in a statement said, “For the Second time in one week, Chief Victor Umeh, a dominant member of the Senate has attacked Governor Rochas Okorocha in the media, calling the governor all sorts of names and unprovoked too.
“In the latest attack, he called Governor Okorocha a trickster and also threatened to expose him.
“Our quick response goes this way; if there is anybody whose life story is zigzag, it is Chief Victor Umeh. The life story of Governor Okorocha is a straight forward one right from Jos Plateau State uptil now. He has never been associated with any shady deal. And his business life and his Political life Stories can be smoothly narrated without any gap and are also known by most Nigerians.
“But Chief Umeh cannot make a similar claim. Let him publish his profile and let Governor Okorocha publish his own profile and let’s see whose story will be disjointed, and who is nobody until APGA came on board.
“Governor Okorocha by all consideration has succeeded as a governor following his monumental achievements in Imo, but Chief Umeh has failed as a Senator because he lacks all the capacities to fit into the Senate.
“Chief Umeh did his Youth Service in 1985 in Port-Harcourt and he should tell the world his story between that 1985 and 2002 when he joined APGA. Let him tell his story and let that of Okorocha be told side by side.
“He threatened to expose Okorocha. He has continued to make that threat since 2014 when Governor Okorocha left APGA to join the Merger that gave birth to APC. Chief Umeh should carry out his threat now or cover his face in shame. Who does not know the story of Rochas Okorocha in this Country, including his business, politics and so on.
“Chief Umeh will continue to insult Superior people all in the name of APGA. Chief Umeh’s APGA could not produce even a Councilor in any other South-East State except Anambra which Ikemba Ojukwu made possible until Rochas came and broke the jinx. And you may ask; is Imo the only State in the South-East? Why can’t Chief Umeh produce another governor in the South-East?
“The man is a noise maker. But he has failed to talk in the Senate because in the Senate you don’t talk thrash. Men like Umeh have never made any positive contribution to the society or to Igboland but noise making and they find it difficult to acknowledge those making the society to move forward.
“Let Chief Umeh publish his profile and let Rochas publish his own profile same day and let’s see who has questions to answer following the loopholes therein.
“Once again, Umeh should face his Challenges in the Senate and help himself by engaging a Consultant and stop easing his frustration on Rochas Okorocha.
