Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State says he is confident that the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will issue a
Certificate of Return to him as the Senator-elect for Imo West
Senatorial District.
Okorocha expressed this optimism while speaking with State House
Correspondents after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari,
on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“As it stands today, I am just waiting patiently for the release of my certificate of return for an election that I duly won.
“And I am hoping that INEC will release my certificate as I have not
contravened any section of the constitution, neither have I done
anything wrong to warrant the withholding of my certificate.
“I pray and hope that INEC will do what is just and right.
“INEC conducted elections, results were declared by the returning
officer and I won; only to hear one week later that somebody wrote a
petition that he made that declaration under duress; the question is
where?
“Was it in his private house or at the collation centre? If it was at
the collation centre, members of the SSS were there, policemen were
there, as well as international observers and INEC officials.
“So, who actually put him under duress? The man has not been able to
say that; he has never made a statement about that. So I think INEC will
want to do the right thing very soon,’’ NAN quoted him as saying.
According to Okorocha, he was in the Presidential Villa to request
the president to visit the state to inaugurate his many projects.
The governor said that he had completed the new cargo airport
terminal, warehouses and cargo shelves that needed to be commissioned.
He said he also completed a new police headquarters and a new prison headquarters in the state.
Okorocha said that the aforementioned projects were Federal Government projects undertaken by Imo State Government.
He also listed other projects to include the Justice Oputa Court and the new Imo State High Court complex.
“So, we have well over a thousand projects verifiable to be
commissioned; we are requesting Mr President to kindly commission the
Federal ones and see how many of the state ones he can commission too.
“The 27 model hospitals are much bigger than the state will need, but
those hospitals were built for possible concessions; as people come,
they take over the hospitals and equip them.
“But we have some of them running already; the one in Ikeduru is
fully running and is being taken over by an American company; we have
some taken by some Churches and private organisations.
“That is our style of making Imo State a tourist destination for
Nigeria by building those 27 general hospitals, a diagnostic centre, a
free child and mother hospital and the Imo Medical Centre.
“So, put together, we have 30 hospitals with close to 10,000 beds
built by this administration; those hospitals are futuristic so to say.
“They have been roofed; they have all been tiled and fenced; what
remains is that we are looking for management because if you pack in
now, you might not have the need for it; we are talking about the
future, not now,’’ he said.
On the Imo State governorship election, Okorocha said that the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate Emeka Ihedioha, did not win
the election as he flouted Section 179 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said that the returning officer was not fit to be a professor; and
should be charged for not respecting the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
Okorocha, however, attributed the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s
poor performance in the state to the imposition of a candidate by the
party’s leadership.
