Former Governor of Imo State, and Senator Representing Imo West at the Senate, Senator Rochas Okorocha, is up against his successor, Governor Hope Uzodimma, who seems to have turned on the heat on him lately.
The duo adjudged political foes, since Uzodimma emerged Governor via the Supreme Court judgement of January 14, 2020, have been at daggers drawn over State matters and political issues in the State.
Uzodimma had slammed the former Governor over his claims that he owns Eastern Palm University, EPU situated in Ogboko, Ideato South Local Government Area.
The Uzodimma administration kicked against the claims and took swift actions to reclaim the varsity from the senator. The State House of Assembly repealed the law establishing ownership of the university by Okorocha, and renamed the varsity after late elder statesman, K.O Mbadiwe.
With renaming of the EPU, Okorocha is on the verge of losing ownership of the university. He had claimed that his foundation, Rochas Okorocha foundation, is in partnership with the State government over the citadel of learning.
Sources said he intends challenge the action of the State House of Assembly in court.
This development is the latest onslaught against the former Governor, who had boasted that he is richer than government, a claim which sources revealed to INNONEWS, really irked the Uzodimma administration, and could have formed the basis for the fresh onslaught by Uzodimma against the former Governor.
Okorocha had told his supporters that he is a rich man and even far richer than the present government in the State.
The latest close up on Okorocha by Uzodimma’s government is the recovery of Royal Palm Estate,Owerri, a vast property linked to the wife of the former Governor, Nneoma Rochas Okorocha.
Officials of the State government say that the recovery is as a result of the recommendation of a Panel of Inquiry which recommended that all illegal lands and structures acquired by past administrations between 2006-2019 be recovered
The former Governor had also lost some of his loyalists who had served in his administration as officials. Governor Uzodimma had appointed them as his Special Advisers, raising fears of the Governor’s plan to decimate the political family of the former Governor.
Okorocha is undoubtedly losing the battle to have firmer grip of the All Progressive Congress, APC in the State. He and his army of loyalists have not indulged in the ongoing registration and revalidation of membership of the party. He has been pushing though, unsuccessfully for his faction of the party led by Dan Nwafor, one of his political foot-soldiers, to be recognized as the State Chairman of APC.
He had announced last month that he is in talks with “political like minds” to consider the possibility of floating a new political party, a statement which he later denied.
His return to the senate for a second term is foggy if events in the APC in the State remain the same.
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