Rochas Okorocha, ex-governor of Imo State and now, Senator for Imo West, has said that it was unbelievable the actions the state government led by Governor Emeka Ihedioha has taken over the Eastern Palm University and the scrapping of other new ones as well as other institutions built by his administration.
Okorocha, while dismissing the action as untenable, stated that such showed the speed Ihedioha’s administration wanted to make nonsense and destroy the landmark projects he put in place when he was the governor.
This was contained in a release by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, and made available to BDSUNDAY in Owerri.
He said that the Eastern Palm University was a public private partnership (PPP) venture, arguing that what the government should have done in that matter was to look at the whole scenario, including the legal undertones and then take the appropriate action in the overall interest of the state, her people and humanity in general.
“Equally, scrapping the six universities, four polytechnics and three Colleges of Education built by Okorocha’s government, which have already taken off, with befitting structures on ground and their operational licences gotten, was obviously counter-productive. It was not the best of actions,” he said.
He stated that the government would have looked at the ideas or vision behind the building of the institutions and their advantages both short- and long-term and then take things easy with them, in lieu of being hasty in scrapping them.
“We want to let Governor Ihedioha know that Okorocha had done eight (8) years as governor and cannot be governor again. He should stop acting as if he is in contest with the former governor.
“We are saying this because the zeal, with which the governor has been destroying and discrediting all that the former governor laboured to put in place, has become worrisome to all Imo people and others too.
All the facilities Okorocha used to beautify Owerri, the State Capital, have all been removed as if INEC announced him governor for the sake of removing or destroying all that Okorocha built”, Onwuemeodo said in the release.
Following the actions of the Prof. Jude Njoku’s Committee Onwuemeodo said that going by the nomenclature and task given to the Committee, which is “Committee on the review of Newly Established Tertiary Institutions”, the Chairman, Prof. Njoku exceeded the job of the committee by announcing immediate takeover of the Eastern Palm University and Scrapping all the Tertiary Institutions built by Okorocha.
He contend that what was expected of the committee at the end of its findings was to submit their findings or reports to the governor, who would then handover the report to the Attorney-General of the
State, to look at all the legal ingredients involved in the establishment of the universities and others, before making any specific pronouncement on them.
“Obviously, the governor was looking at the man behind the institutions, Okorocha, instead of looking at their in-built merits both now and in the nearest future. It is also worth mentioning that since his inauguration as governor he has not been able to do any other thing apart from inspecting, removing, destroying and discrediting all that Okorocha did, which means, we didn’t lie when we claimed that Okorocha had more than one thousand verifiable projects,” he said.
SABY ELEMBA, OWERRI
