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EPU: Frequent shadow chasing portrays you as idle, Okorocha tells Uzodinma

Former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has replied Governor Hope Uzodinma’s recent claim of taking over the Eastern Palm University (EPU), Ogboko, after last Wednesday’s State Executive Council (SEC) meeting. Okorocha had in a swift response urged Uzodinma to stop chasing shadows and face the demands of his office as his frequent pandering to the gallery tends to show he is an idle governor. The senator expressed regret that the state government under Uzodinma was so naive about the workings of government that they assume they could arbitrarily take over an institution that is a product of legislation, by mere pronouncements in a press conference.

Recall that the Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba, had on Wednesday at a press conference declared that government has recovered EPU. Reacting to the state government’s declaration, Okorocha said: “Uzodinma fails to understand that the university in question is not a market store or neighbourhood shop, which he can just claim to have recovered, through a press conference.” Okorocha, who spoke via a statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media), Sam Onwuemeodo, pleaded with the Imo public to disregard the claim by the state government under Uzodinma that it has recovered the Eastern Palm University, Ogboko.

The statement noted that the only reason given by government was that a Whitepaper that has not been released recommended the recovery. Okorocha also maintained that the claim was diversionary and only aimed at diverting public attention from the total collapse of governance in Imo. The statement reads in part: “The Eastern Palm University is a creation of the law.

It has a law establishing it. It is a legal entity. So, it is not a kiosk or market store one could wake up one day to claim or announce to have recovered. “The Eastern Palm University was established by the Imo State of Nigeria, Law No. 3 of 2019. And part II, No.3 (3) Stated that, “the University shall be owned on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis, by the Imo State Government and the Incorporated Trustees of Rochas Foundation, hereinafter referred to as the parties.

“So, it is absurd for the government to announce to have recovered an institution established by law through a press conference held in one of the offices in Government House, and claiming too, to have based the illegal action on a Whitepaper nobody has seen.” The statement regretted that Uzodinma’s administration deliberately refused to also inform the press that it is still in court over the same university. “Why not wait for the court to give judgement on the matter you brought to it? Why resorting to self help?,” Onwuemeodo queried.

He continued: “It is also important to state that the government came up with the worrisome claim of recovering the Eastern Palm University to divert attention from the ugly developments in the state, in the past few days, in which, not less than five Imo indigenes had been killed, including the former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Owerri Branch, Ndionyenma Nwankwo, because the security situation in the state has deteriorated. “A journalist, Mr. Precious Nwadike, was beaten to coma, allegedly by one of the governor’s brothers, with his private security personnel. “In the past two days too, ISOPADEC’s workers have chased away the management and locked the gates of the commission before embarking on an indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries and about 80 per cent slash in their salaries.”

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