Since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha the winner of the governorship election in Imo State, there has been a lot of statement from different quarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that Governor Rochas Okorocha and his allies were moving some government property to their personal houses; converting government vehicles to personal vehicles.
This has prompted Mr Onwuasoanye FCC Jones, the Media and Publicity Director of Ugwumba Uche Nwosu Campaign Organisation to shade some light to some of the property Okorocha owned and to state unequivocally that Rochas Okorocha was worth not less than fifty billion Naira before he became governor of Imo state. And, he didn’t end his write up without taking a swipe at the Incoming Governor, Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
Read what Mr Onwuasoanya Jones wrote:
Governor Okorocha was worth nothing less than 50 billion Naira before he became governor in 2011. As a growing lad, Okorocha’s motorcade could keep us staring in awe for more than 20 minutes anytime he passes through Akokwa on his way to Ogboko or anywhere else. He was already one of the biggest property owners in Nigeria before his swearing in as governor of Imo State on May 29th, 2011.
In Owerri alone, Owelle already owned the Spibat construction yard, the two Lamonde (Now Willow Wood) Hotels, Lamonde Printing Press, which was the biggest printing press in Imo State at that time. None of these properties were sold before he became governor. He already owned the Rochas Plaza, the Rochas Convention Center along Ugwu Orji, a number of properties in the New Owerri Area of Owerri, including his private residence around Concorde Hotel.
Governor Okorocha owned the land on which he built the Rochas Foundation Schools along Onitsha Road in Owerri and also owned another large expanse of land on which he built the Ogboko branch of the same school. Anyone who has been around for the past twenty years would remember the long open buses that used to convey the Rochas Foundation children to and from school.
This same Rochas had run for the presidency of this country twice. In 2003, he ran almost successfully for the ANPP ticket, before the leaders of that Party, afraid that Rochas was going to win with a landslide should they allow open voting, decided to go by a controversial consensus arrangement that produced General Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate.
In 2007, he left the Action Alliance which he founded to join the PDP, less than two weeks to their presidential convention and beat many sitting governors and others, including the Late Abubakar Rimi to come second in that national convention. Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Baffarawa has recently come out to confess that Rochas actually won the 2003 presidential primaries of the ANPP.
Before 2011, Rochas already had more than 5000 children of the poorest of the poor enrolled in his Rochas Foundation Schools across the six geopolitical zones in the country. He also had hundreds of children he was training in the university. Rochas was already a household name before Emeka Ihedioha sneaked into the House of Representatives, all thanks to the intervention of Atiku Abubakar and other Abuja bigwigs after he was trounced in the primaries of the PDP.
Rochas was already dining with world leaders long before 1999 and commanded a lot of respect across Nigeria as a result of his philanthropic gestures and wide political contacts. Recently, I saw the funeral brochure of his mother who died sometime around 2008 or thereabouts, and he got condolence messages from more than fifty countries across Europe, America’s, Asia and Africa.
Today, some riffraffs who cannot qualify to serve as PAs to Okorocha’s least paid PA before he became governor, are disturbing the internet with annoying posts about missing State government properties. What in the world does Imo State have that will impress Rochas so much that he would want to take them?
By the way, do people remember how the Imo State Government House looked like before Governor Okorocha took over? That place was like a poultry farm, today, it stands out as one of the best Government Houses in the entire Federation.
It is obvious that the PDP is planning to loot some government properties and are desperately seeking to divert attention by putting it on Governor Okorocha. They make themselves appear very silly with such falsehoods, because no reasonable person takes them seriously.
