Rochas Okorocha Replies Sen Chris Anyanwu On N50bn Local Debts

GOVERNMENT OF IMO STATE
PRESS RELEASE

 RE: SENATOR CHRIS ANYANWU HAS NO PROGRAMME FOR IMO PEOPLE

We have read with concern the media reports credited to the Senator representing Owerri zone in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Chris Anyanwu in which case, she accused the Governor of the state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha of plunging the state into huge debt, including local debts of about N50 billion, among other petty allegations she made against the governor of her home state.
Senator Anyanwu came up with the unfounded allegations while declaring her ambition to run for the governorship of the state on the platform of the PDP in 2015, and after she had bought the governorship nomination form of her party.
Let us start our reaction by acknowledging that Chris Anyanwu is a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who deserves certain degrees of respect. She is also a lucky politician having been the first person in Owerri senatorial zone who has gone to the senate for second term of 8 years even when the late Evan Enwerem could not achieve that feat.
Beyond all these, one could be stating the obvious if Senator Anyanwu is said to have put on the toga of an alarmist in recent time, which is not expected from a distinguished senator of her calibre.
Recently, she deceived the distinguished senators by raising the alarm that the Imo state government was registering northerners in the state with the aim of issuing them identification cards, and the senators were deceived into passing a resolution on a matter that never existed. When the challenge was thrown back to the senators for proof, they discovered that they had been deceived by the female senator from Imo state, prompting the state to demand for an apology.
This time around, the senator also used an opportunity she would have appropriated to tell Imo people what she was able to achieve for the eight years she has been in the senate and her programmes for the state, if she becomes the governor in 2015, to raise another alarm of huge debt that does not exist and without giving any hint to her audience that could enable them authenticate her claims.
Senator Anyanwu would have given the particulars of the debts and how she arrived at the N50billion local debt to be taken serious. If the alleged debt was money borrowed from the bank, then which bank? Using her declaration event for her governorship ambition to make the bogus claims was an indication that she has no programme or policies for the state.
Senator Anyanwu’s programme for the state in her governorship pursuit would not have been Rochas Okorocha; or the imaginary debt his government was suspected to have incurred. The truth of the matter is that gubernatorial aspirants like Senator Anyanwu know that to beat Rochas in the 2015 guber election in the state would be like building a skyscraper in the air; which does not have the possibility of happening. And they now feel that scratching him at every forum would help their precarious political situation in the state.
In making the allegation, Senator Anyanwu did not say anything that would make any serious person to believe her. So, we see the allegation as an issue she used to fill the gap the unveiling of her programme for the state, for her governorship dream would have filled. She had no programme to tell Imo people. And she then used the false claim to fill the blank space. Do not forget, she needs to win the PDP ticket before talking about Rochas.
Sam Onwuemeodo
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media