.Onyeagocha says governor dictatorial, despotic, deceitful
By Baron Ike
A major crack has surfaced in the Imo State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) over the leadership style of Governor Rochas Okorocha which the complainants say borders on selfishness, highhandedness and failure to carry all party men along.
The result is that the APC is under intense stress which may lead to its extinction ahead of the 2019 general election.
In fact, it is being speculated that Okorocha may be doing what he is doing in the party deliberately with the intent to destroy it if his political aspirations are not met.
Part of the things which Okorocha is believed to be pushing for ahead of 2019 election is the candidacy of his son-inlaw, Uche Nwosu, who happens to be his Chief of Staff after holding several offices in his government since 2011. The wants to install someone close to him who will help cove his tracts by the time he finishes his tenure.
A prominent member of the APC in Imo State, Uche Onyeagocha, a lawyer and tested civil rights activist is at the forefront of the campaign against the ills of the governor, and would want the buy-in of several well-meaning stakeholders before Okorocha pulls the wools before their eyes.
Onyeagocha has therefore resigned his appointment as a member of the State Development Council (SDC) purportedly representing his Obinze Ward in Owerri West. He did through an open letter he dispatched to the governor that went viral on Thursday, May 25, noting that his appointment into the Council was first and foremost a grand design to desperately foist Nwosu on the good people of Imo State by Okorocha. The letter itself was written on May 18.
Onyeagocha not only said Okorocha’s style was full of deceit, but that he has drifted towards dictatorship and despotism, features that do not make room for free speech under a democracy.
He also condemned the manner Okorocha has dealt with issues concerning the Imo pensioners, saying that he was “compelled to join forces with well-meaning and egalitarian APC leaders to rescue APC in Imo State and the State itself from you.”
Below is the full text of Onyeagocha’s letter to Okorocha
OPEN LETTER TO GOV. ROCHAS OKOROCHA
His Excellency Owelle Rochas Okorocha (OON)
Executive Governor Of Imo State
Government House Complex
Owerri
LETTER OF RESIGNATION AS STATE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (SDC) MEMBER PURPORTEDLY REPRESENTING OBINZE WARD, OWERRI WEST
I hereby write to resign my membership of the State Development Council (SDC) which appointment I was not offered to accept or reject from the outset.
The reasons for my resignation are expressed below in as plain and simple language as possible to dispel every risk of ambiguity. Ordinarily, communications such as this are made through memos, but since it is common knowledge that you do not read such ‘irksome’ literature, I therefore chose to use this unconventional medium in the hope that your attention will be drawn to it one way or another. My reasons for resignation are as follows:
1. Your selection of 305 persons (one per Ward) as SDC members is a mere political arrangement in your desperate attempt to foist Uche Nwosu, your son-in-law as the next governor of Imo State come 2019 despite the fact that he is from the same zone as yourself and Chief Achike Udenwa.
2. You have used SDC members to mobilize our people to fill out fictitious empowerment and other forms through the office of your son-in-law as a way to garner admiration and make the masses see him as dispenser of State favour.
3. I am no longer able to allow myself to be used as an instrument against Imo State workers and pensioners. I oppose your current plan to extort Imo pensioners of 50% of their pension rights having previously extorted them of 30% of their pensions and other workers salaries. A state that is incapable of paying her pensioners and other workers, her Governor should not be moving around in private jet.
4. I am no longer submitting myself to be used as an instrument to emasculate the State Civil Service which structure you have deliberately distorted and almost completely destroyed.
5. Having fought against oppression and arbitrariness all my life as a Civil Rights activist, I’ve long observed that your administration has brazenly drifted towards dictatorship and despotism. Every effort to advice you in the contrary have failed. I am left with no option than to join forces with other progressive minds to stand up against your dictatorial tendencies.
6. You have deliberately underfunded and emasculated our great party (APC) at every level. This is pronounced in the fact that no single branch of our Party in Imo State has a bus. Party offices of Wards & LGAs have been ceased by their landlords because you have refused to assist them to pay rents. Our Party State Headquaters is only but a shadow of what the State Office of a governing Party should be. All appeal to you on these matters has failed, making us to doubt your loyalty and support for APC which delivered you as Governor of Imo State.
7. You have impoverished all your political appointees who ought to be making contributions to fund and support our great Party. Precisely, your commissioners, advisers, assistants and Transition Committee Chairmen – past and present – have been paid peanuts that turned them to beggars rather than benefactors to our great Party. The situation today is so bad that every of your appointee who had been relieved of their appointments have turned into an enemy rather than asset to the Party.
8. Your deception and continued refusal to conduct LGA elections after 6 long years have further worsened the development and growth of the Party and the LGAs. I challenge you to honor your word for once by conducting LGA elections in Imo State in September 2017.
9. The State has suffered so much from your lack of planning and hatred for due process in the affairs of government.
Finally, I am compelled to join forces with well-meaning and egalitarian APC leaders to rescue APC in Imo State and the State itself from you.
Sincerely,
Uche Onyeagucha Esq.
APC Member, Obinze Ward, Owerri West LGA
18th May 2017