Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State governor, has accused the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, of plunging the party into avoidable crisis through imposition of candidates for the 2019 polls.
This, he said, had dented the credibility and integrity of the APC and eroded justice, uprightness, and fairness in its affairs.
The governor expressed regrets that the imposition of candidates by the Oshiomhole led National Working Committee of the party had provoked the defection of a number of his aggrieved party members to the opposition parties where they hope to realise their ambitions.
The governor was briefing newsmen in Owerri and said although dismayed and demoralized by the unhealthy development, he had no intention to leave the party as he was still a strong contender for the Imo West (Orlu) senatorial seat.
“The action of Oshiomhole in respect of the APC party primaries in Imo is a clear case of injustice. People who never took part in the primary curiously emerged as candidates, but I am still in APC and I have no intention to leave the party,” he said.
Professing his support for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, the governor recalled his contribution towards the emergence of Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the party and accused him of ingratitude by biting the hand that fed him.
According to him, “A good number of my followers and aides have left the APC because of outright robbery of their victory and despite my pressure on them not to do so, they disobeyed me and I do not have any moral justification to stop them.”
The governor absolved the President of any complicity in the action of Oshiomhole and insisted that the party’s National Chairman was on his own.
While contending that Uche Nwosu remained the best among the legion of governorship hopefuls in the state, he advised the electorate to ascertain the pedigree and antecedents of politicians seeking their votes to avoid putting square pegs in round holes.
