The battle of wits between some Imo lawmakers not deposed to joining the Imo state governor, Owell Rochas Okorocha in All Progressive Congress, APC, is degenerating to frightening dimension with several tactics being deployed to outwit each other.
It would be recalled that there is rumpus in the Imo State House of Assembly following rumoured defection to APC and resolution of few APGA members not to join the bandwagon to the new party of the governor who was elected under APGA platform. Apart from refusal to join, the affected lawmakers are risking blackmail of allegedly signing resignation letters which forced them to head to court to stop any attempt to relieve them of their positions.
Another fear which has kept the Executive Arm in an uncomfortable posture is the fact that should the APGA lawmakers join forces with their PDP counterparts, they would automatically move against the House leadership before pushing against the governor.
To forestall any attempt at unleashing political attack on him, the Chief Executive Officer of the state is said to be perfecting strategies at not only keeping the offensive lawmakers at bay but also make them submissive to his desire of having an APC filled House of Assembly.
Competent Government House sources revealed that Okorocha is worried that since he decamped from APGA to APC and began the campaign for the party in the South East, his lawmakers, especially those in APGA and PDP sympathizers have remained uncompromising in that regard. To coarse them in, the governor is said to have used several tactics to whip them into line to agree to his terms but to no avail.
Having discovered there could be ulterior motive behind their actions, the state governor is said to have devised another means to hit back at the uncompromising lawmakers after the suspension threat appears to be shaky. The approach is the employment of anti-graft agencies to hunt the targeted lawmakers. It was gathered that petitions have been sent to both operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, to that effect to expose some of the lawmakers who allegedly took kick-backs and certain percentages from several contractors awarded road and projects in the state. Another issue of great importance the anti-graft agencies would investigate is the incivility of the lawmakers to complete their earmarked constituency projects especially the Community Government Secretariat, CGC, LGA Secretariats across the 27 LGA which they have been fully financially mobilized but yet to be completed.
Apart from verbally charging them to complete the CGC Secretariat, Okorocha had in one of the meetings with lawmakers late last year threatened to invite EFCC and ICPC should they fail to complete the CGC Secretariats which they have received full payments for.
It was further learnt that past Chairmen were assembled for a meeting in Government House where they gave detail of the activities of some activities of the lawmakers who allegedly engaged in illicit deals while awarding and supervising contracts. The new Transition Committee Chairmen were mandated to get the current data of projects with a view to determining those affected by unwholesome acts of some lawmakers.
The issue of CGC will be the death knell where majority of the lawmakers are yet to complete the project.
When contacted, a lawmaker from Orlu Zone who pleaded anonymity confirmed knowledge of the Governor’s threat but noted that the Governor is a mere joker stating that the governor only released 2012 constituency allowance while 2011, 2013 are untouched. The lawmaker asked if Okorocha has completed projects he started before bringing EFCC and ICPC to arrest them?
