Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has described current Imo governor Hope Uzodimma as an opportunist, saying he lacks the political power to carry the Southeast.\n<\/p>\n
Okorocha also noted that Uzodimma doesn\u2019t beat his popularity among the Imo people, saying he (Uzodimma) only exists in the Aso Villa.\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Okorocha had commended a Federal High Court judgment on the All Progressives Congress senatorial primary in Imo West as a victory for the judiciary, democracy and the Nigerian Constitution.\n<\/p>\n
Following conflicting claims over the outcome of the APC primary ahead of the 2027 elections, Okorocha had sued the ruling APC and others, seeking a declaration that he was the authentic party candidate for Imo West Senatorial District, as opposed to Uzodimma, who was declared by the party.<\/p>\n
Uzodimma was declared the winner and recognised by INEC, which maintained that the official results showed that the governor polled 230,464 votes, while Okorocha received 1,098 votes. However, a separate document subsequently circulated, purporting to show that Okorocha won the primary with 150,780 votes.\n<\/p>\n
Okorocha challenged Uzodimma\u2019s recognition at the Federal High Court in Abuja in a suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1854\/2026, asking the court to determine whether INEC was right to recognise the incumbent governor as the party\u2019s candidate.\n<\/p>\n
The suit also raised questions about Uzodimma\u2019s eligibility to contest the 2027 senatorial election while serving as governor, whose tenure is expected to end in January 2028.<\/p>\n
During his interview on Channels TV\u2019s Politics Today programme on Thursday, Okorocha stated that the incumbent governor can\u2019t beat his record when he was in power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not tell you anything here. But go and ask about my record. So what is important to me now is how Asiwaju will be re-elected in Imo State.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my name coming on the ballot paper now, Asiwaju can be sure that his victory is guaranteed in Imo State\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHope Uzodimma cannot be worked with by anybody because he is a chance man. He\u2019s an opportunist. What preoccupies his mind now is not even the governance,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Okorocha added that he would form a Rainbow Coalition, similar to that of the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, to seek support for President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is why I commend people like Wike when they talk about Rainbow Coalition. You know what Rainbow Coalition means? Let\u2019s go beyond politics and talk about governance,\u201d Okorocha said, saying if he sees someone \u201cwho can do well, even though he\u2019s not from my party, let\u2019s give him support. That\u2019s what is called governance. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs I live here now, we\u2019re going to start Rainbow Coalition. We\u2019re going to bring PDP, all of them, to support Tinubu to win, and some people will step down from their positions to just make sure we achieve one common goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHope cannot carry Imo; cannot carry Southeast. It\u2019s in Abuja, in the villa here that Hope exists. He doesn\u2019t exist down here, and I challenge him. Let\u2019s move out and call the people and see what will happen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Okorocha further noted that Uzodimma intends to hold two government positions, in which he would be in power as a governor till 2028, while also seeking a senatorial seat in 2027.\n<\/p>\n
This, he said, is unlawful under the Constitution.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point we are making is that Hope Uzodinma has a tenure of eight years to elapse in January 2028. Hope is contesting for Senate, which starts in May 2027. What that means is that Hope Uzodinma is holding a paid job and seeking another paid job. So the question in the mind of everybody is: if Hope Uzodinma now is a governor under Section 183 of the Constitution, which says that you shall not hold two paid jobs, then for you to hold a paid job and seek another paid job means that you either don\u2019t want the one you are holding and want to seek another one.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is, the Constitution never insists on what situation will ever arise that a normal person holding a position of governor will abandon it to go for Senate.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the courts made a very clear statement on that, and it\u2019s not lawful for him to do that because, if he wins it, he\u2019s going to be holding two paid jobs. So what that means, in really practical terms, if we\u2019re talking about common sense, I\u2019m not talking about law now, is that Hope Usodima is deemed to have resigned as governor for seeking another job because if he becomes a senator, definitely he must resign as a governor.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s the situation we find ourselves in; I\u2019ll build that point, but that is not the point that took us to court that much. What took us to court was on the character of the papers presented by both parties,\u201d Okorocha said.<\/p>\n
Former Anambra State governor and 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, had advocated a four-year term for presidents.\n<\/p>\n
Commenting on this,\u00a0Okorocha noted that while he doesn\u2019t encourage the Igbo people to abandon their own (Obi), he believes the four-year term suggestion is a \u201cgamble.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not abandonment; it is to clearly explain to the people the implications of what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re gambling with four years. We\u2019re gambling with four. It\u2019s a gamble. How will that help us if we lose the four years now, and in the same circumstances we\u2019re not getting the support of the Southwest or the Northwest when it is our turn to seek the presidential election?\u201d he queried.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cObi is a fantastic gentleman, clear in his head, cool; there\u2019s nothing wrong with him, but we can\u2019t gamble. We can\u2019t do four years of gambling this time. I was for that four years ago, and I strongly believe that it should be. Once it\u2019s gone and the plane has taken off, please allow it to land because it will be a reference point for years to come.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we are supporting Tinubu not on an emotional and sentimental basis, but for a strategic alliance, so the next time we could say we supported; we need support for this time,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has described current Imo governor Hope Uzodimma as an opportunist, saying he lacks the political power to carry the Southeast. Okorocha also noted that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}