By Chidi Nkwopara
OWERRI – Governor Rochas Okorocha and his cronies have been advised to pay more attention to governance, for which he was elected and stop manufacturing blatant lies to confuse the hapless citizens.

Okorocha

The Owerri Archdiocesan Director of Communication, Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu, gave the advice while reacting to the rumour trailing the verbal assault on Archbishop Anthony J. V. Obinna at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Ngwoma Obube.

He wondered why any sane mind would think that the Archbishop was fighting the Governor because he (Okorocha) refused to fund Catholic mission schools.

Fr. Nwachukwu equally debunked the state government’s claim that it gave the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, the sum of N400 million to rehabilitate schools handed over to the church.

“The claim that Archbishop Obinna is fighting the Governor because he refused to subvent Catholic mission schools is a blatant lie. The Governor and his cronies should please face governance, which is why he was elected, instead of feeding the citizenry with blatant lies periodically”, Fr. Nwachukwu said.

The Archdiocesan Director of Communication reasoned that as the “vicar of Christ on earth, the Archbishop will always stand up in defence of the people”, irrespective of the place and circumstance.

“There is absolutely nothing personal about the Archbishop’s position at Ngwoma Obube. He even did a more severe battle during the Col. Tanko Zubairu military administration. Given life and strength, the Archbishop will keep speaking for the voiceless and hapless majority”, Nwachukwu said.

On the funding of Catholic schools, the cleric explained that the Archdiocese does not have any problem with it, stressing that the schools are doing well.

“The Archbishop has no apology for saying that Imo State needs a seasoned administrator to govern it. What we need is a democratically elected governor and not a handpicked successor”, Fr. Nwachukwu said.

He re-echoed Archbishop Obinna’s admonition that “Governor Rochas Okorocha cannot succeed himself and that pushing his son in-law, Uche Nwosu, to replace him,is an indirect way of doing that and this is most unacceptable to Imo people”.

Vanguard recalls that the Archbishop had, during the Requiem Mass, condemned the idea of imposing a candidate on the people and urged the faithful to arm themselves with their voter’s card, for the 2019 general election.

“The Governor cannot impose anybody on the rest of us. The people’s votes will decide. We have become miserable. Imo is now an empty basket. Rebuilding the state and restoring its dignity is a challenge. Let us vote for mature, responsible citizens, who will serve the
people and not dominate them”, Archbishop Obinna told the congregation.

The fiery cleric also told the faithful that: “Imo needs a seasoned technocrat, who will right the wrongs and correct several anomalies and hardship inflicted by the present administration, and not the Governor’s stooge, who lacks the experience and maturity for such exalted office.”