Okorocha Distances Self from Presidential Posters in Abuja

Amby Uneze in Owerri

Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has denied his posters with Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State for the 2019 Presidency which have flooded the streets of Abuja and other Northern states, describing it as the handiwork of his detractors.

In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemedo, the governor said he sees the posters as another mischief by some mischievous elements cowed by his monumental achievements in Imo and what he represents in the politics of the South-east and Nigeria in general today.

According to the statement, those behind this mischief first invaded the social media with the fake posters but when they discovered that Nigerians doubted the source and the genuineness of the posters, they decided to paste them in Abuja.

“On the part of the Imo State Governor, it is very difficult to capture what the folks behind this pettiness want to achieve or what must have prompted them, in the first place. Soon after the 2015 election, and knowing the leading role Governor Okorocha played in the South-east that put the PDP field commanders on their toes, which prevented them from returning the kind of election figures they had returned in 2011 in the zone, and knowing that by virtue of that key role, Okorocha should expectedly reap largely from the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, they began their campaign of calumny against him.

“Since then, they have never left any stone unturned to ensure that they put a knife in the enviable relationship existing between the President and Governor Okorocha. Their latest unfortunate outing is the posters in question.
Interestingly, Okorocha has for some times now been reported to have told those willing to hear that he won’t run the 2019 presidential election because of President Buhari. And by repeatedly saying that, he succeeded in disarming the little minds that had used that issue to blackmail him.

“And now they have begun to publish about Okorocha being the Vice-Presidential whatever to Governor Shettima. And for the sake of exposing these petty minded fellows one can ask whether if Rochas and Shettima want to run election they would begin in 2016 to paste posters for 2019 election and when both of them are sitting governors. The truth is that the posters were neither here nor there. And nobody would believe them. We only ask God to give those behind the posters the right spirit. People with the right spirit cannot engage in such debilitating act. Only the poor in spirit could do that. And they have our sympathy,” he stated.

Okorocha noted that he is not known for double-standards as he had already made it clear to all Nigerians that he won’t run for the presidency in 2019 because of President Buhari.

He maintained that he would ensure that the president succeeds, warning those behind the posters not to distract the system and join hands with President Buhari to bring Nigeria out of the woods.