By Uzoma Akobundu
If the story making the rounds in Imo State is anything to go by, then the in-laws of Governor Rochas Okorocha may have decided to wash their dirty linen in public.
At the centre of the struggle for power are the governor’s chief of staff, Uche Nwosu who Okorocha had earlier endorsed to succeed him, the husband to Okorocha’s younger sister, Chuks Ololo and the husband to the second daughter of Okorocha, Uzoma Anwuka.
Okorocha and his wife are routing for Nwosu, but Ololo insists he was more qualified for the office of the governor because he comes from the zone, Owerri that is supposed to produce the governor after Okorocha’s tenure in 2019.
Ololo is said to be insisting that he will not step down for anybody which is against the wishes of Okorocha and his wife.
As if that was not big enough trouble, Anwuka is said to be plotting to be made chief of staff even before the election is held and a winner emerges, an ambition that is hinged on his ploy to position himself for political power post Nwosu’s tenure.
Even though Okorocha was said to have caved in to the desire of his wife to endorse Nwosu, our source revealed that trouble emerged in the larger Okorocha family following the purported unwholesome support of Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha for Nwosu against the will of the larger family.
Though many extended family members see Nwosu as arrogance and disrespectful, they are beginning to see his support by the wife of the governor as not only borne out of selfishness but egoistic ambition of handing over to her daughter as the next wife of the Governor of the State.
A source said this development has not only divided the family to unimaginable degree but also brought enmity and disrepute to its image from different quarters of the state.
Sources said in a bid to salvage the image of the family, some members of Okorocha’s family decided to support Ololo, husband to Okorocha’s younger sister, Mrs. Ogechi Ololo, the Commissioner for Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment.
According to a report in one of the Owerri-based local tabloids, Ololo in declaring his interest to contest the governorship election said he is unstoppable by anyone.
He was said to have insisted he is the most senior brother-in-law to the Okorochas before Nwosu and the fact that he is from Owerri zone makes him more saleable than Nwosu. He was said to have vowed never to step down for anybody.
Okorocha is said to be confused on how to get around the raging issue including allegedly threatening the Commissioner for Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment with sack.
Other interests are believed to be tearing the once close big family members apart.
A source alleged that the son of the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, Uzoma, who is married to Okorocha’s second son is positioning himself for the office of the Chief of Staff, come 2019.
Uzoma is at present the Medical Director, Government House clinic.
The mother of all the family drama is also linked to a certain principal officer of the Rescue Mission who in his quest to be considered in Okorocha’s succession plan was said to have allegedly wooed one daughter of the family and allegedly got her pregnant, an act which almost caused him a broken home.
The story is awash in town that the principal officer in question has opened a salon for the lady and also bought her an SUV car.
But he has also been compensated for denting the image of the family with an endorsement to vie for House of Representatives in one of the Federal Constituencies in Owerri zone by Okorocha.
Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Chief Charles Babatunde Ezekwem, recently accused Okorocha of “recklessness, corruption, callousness, nepotism, thuggery and irritating deception.”