Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State governor, on Monday stated that he has no score to settle with Most Rev. Dr Anthony Obinna, the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, even as he advised members of the public to stop creating such impression.
The governor recalled that in 2011 and 2015 respectively, he and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, won overwhelmingly in Owerri Municipal, where most members of the Owerri Catholic Diocese reside.
He maintained that more than 95 percent of members of the Diocese, including the Archbishop’s elder brother and a frontline politician in the state, Sir Paddy Obinna, had remained strong supporters of his administration.
Sam Onwuemeodo, Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, said in statement that in 2019, members of the diocese would vote for the governor’s choice for the governorship, not minding what he termed the campaign of calumny and propaganda being dished out by some people against the government.
He stressed: “They know that the governor has never in any way offended the Archbishop or the Diocese. They know that Governor Okorocha’s achievements in seven years have exceeded all that his predecessors since the creation of the State in 1976 put together had achieved.
“And they equally know that the governor has invested in the Diocese more than any of those before him as governor, whether Military or Civilian, had done.
“Even the reported incident at a funeral service at Ngor-Okpala, most members of the diocese were there and know the truth, beyond the propaganda of frustrated opposition in the state. And luckily too, the Archbishop himself had told the world that he was neither attacked nor manhandled by anybody.”.
According to him, the only issue was that the Archbishop did not seem to like APC as a party and did not make no pretence about it, just as he did not hide his affiliation to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
“So, he finds it extremely difficult to be on the same page with President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Rochas Okorocha, who are products of APC. That is all.”