Barely two months to the general election, the governor Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has for the umpteenth time opened up on travail bedevilling his desire to go further in political career and become the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
The Imo State governor whose desire to be Nigeria’s number one citizen is yet to quench despite eight years on the saddle as chief executive of the state on the last day of 2018 made a remarkable speech when he pointed fingers at some quarters for being responsible for his current predicament.
Recall that in the build up to 2019 election in APC, majority of anointed candidates of Okorocha under his Rescue Mission political family couldn’t sail through to emerge the party’s flag bearer in many of the positions. The worst hit is the son in-law of the governor and preferred choice as successor, Chief Uche Nwosu who lost out to Senator Uzodinma. To avoid losing out completely, Nwosu, with the backing of Okorocha and other acolytes of the governor dumped APC for AA to pick the party’s ticket.
According to information Trumpeta gathered after Okorocha spoke to a select team of journalists at his Ogboko, Ideato South country home, some yet to exposed persons from the South West and North were ganging up against his 2023 presidential ambition.
Giving further insight into his predicament, Okorocha who declared that he will still run for the Presidency in 2023 was of the view that his current political troubles in the ruling All Progressives Congress started two years ago in Lagos State.
He alleged that a certain politician summoned his political subordinates including his deputy, Eze Madumere, to Lagos and plotted the chart to stop his political ambition by all means.
The governor was quoted to have said, “What I am suffering now in APC started two years ago in Lagos. They called my subordinates including my deputy and asked them to team up to fight me.
“Hope Uzodinma joined them lately. They decided to use him because they saw him as a strong person, being a sitting Senator.
“The whole thing is about my 2023 presidential ambition. They want to shut out any Igbo man who is strong politically from the 2023 presidential race. But despite the gang up, I must contest for President in 2023. ”
Okorocha also alleged that there was an ongoing conspiracy to stop him from going to the Senate in 2019.
Saying that he was too big to represent just a senatorial district after being a governor for eight years, the governor said his mission to the Senate was to go and make a positive difference.
“There is a conspiracy to stop me from going to the Senate. Hope Uzodinma has joined Senator Osita Izunaso. There is an alliance with Jones Onyereri. They will use security agencies to stop me. I am going to the Senate to make a positive difference,” he said.
Maintaining that political forces from the West and North were working to hijack the state’s politics, the governor said, “If care is not taken, a time will come in Imo State that before a sitting governor appoints a commissioner, he will first get an approval from either the West or the North.
“Most of the Igbo elite have compromised but I am the only person who has not compromised and will not compromise.”
