Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has replied the Bishop of Enugu Anglican Diocese, Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma.
Rev. Chukwuma had accused the Imo State Governor of wasteful spending of state funds and maltreating workers and pensioners.
In a statement signed by Sam Onwuemedo, Okorocha said Bishop Chukwuma has spoken like a card carrying member of a political party and not as a Bishop
“Reason being that Politicians are most of the times associated with blackmail, propaganda and marketing of falsehood, but ordained ministers of God are believed to be agents of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”
“Governor Rochas Okorocha’s achievements as governor in less than Seven years have exceeded or superceeded the achievements of all the administrations before him since 1976 when the State was created, put together” he said
He said Okorocha has more than 1,000 projects to his credit,challenging anybody or group with counter claim to indicate or come forward in order to be proved right or wrong.
Part of the statement reads “We have also claimed publicly that Governor Okorocha has more than one thousand (1000) verifiable projects to the credit of his administration and we have thrown up the challenge that anybody with any claim in the contrary should equally come forward so that we can also be proved right or wrong”
“So Governor Okorocha should be commended for being prudent instead of being wrongly accused of wasteful spending”
“And now that a highly revered Priest in the caliber of Bishop Chukwuma has come up with such worrisome claim, we want to humbly ask him to take us up on our own challenges or claims. Let him make a trip to Imo State and see things himself since it seems he does not believe the ones he read in the print media or the ones he has watched on the televisions”
“Imo is working, courtesy of Governor Okorocha. Our opponents in Imo are the few elite with unhindered access to the media and their pursuit is the 2019 guber election in the State which they will also lose like they lost in 2011 and in 2015”
“Indeed, we have also paid workers’ salaries upto November and the payment of the December salary is on as we write”
“On the issue of Pension, we cleared all the arrears in December 2016, and began to pay monthly as from January 2017. We have paid upto March. And we are set to pay them another three months. The outstanding months will also be paid. That is all. We do not tell lies in Imo”
“We are not upto date in the payment of Pensions with the outstanding months but we are upto date in the payment of Salaries like we had stated”
“We challenge our Bishop to find out the truth or otherwise of these claims. The elite in question and their aides are 24 hours on the social media, ware-billing and transporting falsehood”.the statement stated