“Prove N100bn Debt Claim, Or Accept I’m Best Imo Governor Ever” – Okorocha Tells Ihedioha

Immediate past governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has asked his successor, Emeka Ihedioha, to go beyond mere accusation and publish details of the N100 billion debt his administration allegedly left the state to grapple with.

He also asked the incumbent governor to understand that his government achieved, as a governor in eight years, what all the past leaders of the state put together could not.

Ihedioha has continued to accuse Okorocha and his family of milking Imo State dry.

He was said to have claimed on Thursday, that Okorocha incurred N100 billion debt without anything to show for what the monies were used for.

But responding in a statement on Friday by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, Okorocha challenged Ihedioha to make the details of his claim public. He said:

“With regard to the governor’s latest claim of N100 billion debt, we also want to challenge him to publish the details. He should publish the details of the N100 billion debt for public consumption.

“If he could spend billions to launch media attacks and sponsor protests against Okorocha and to discredit his projects, what would it cost to publish details of his N100 billion debt claim.

“How can a governor be making claims or allegations he is always not willing to make the details public. And the person telling him to publish the details has always been the man he accused.

“The speed with which Governor Emeka Ihedioha makes certain claims and dishes out figures about the last administration which Senator Rochas Okorocha headed, without taking steps to prove any of the allegations or authenticate any of the Claims when challenged, means he is taking Nigerians and Imo people in particular, for granted.

“The governor had earlier before now or soon after his inauguration said that the debt profile of the state attracted by Okorocha was N300 billion. His Chief of Staff said it was N275 billion. This is worrisome.”

He called on Ihedioha to stop “dishing out figures as if governance has become a child’s play.” He added:

“We also want to ask the governor to avoid making unbelievable claims. To say that Okorocha achieved nothing would be seen by all and sundry as too cheap. And he has been visiting Okorocha’s projects and finding faults with some of them just to discredit the projects. In case he does not know, Imo people know that what Okorocha achieved as governor in eight years exceeded all that those before him achieved put together.

“He should leave Okorocha and the family alone and face governance. At the event, he announced that he has set up a panel to probe Okorocha and at the same time, released the figure of N100 billion debt. And what if the probe panel comes up with another figure. Governance is a serious business and should be seen as such.”

Okorocha currently represents Imo West at the upper chamber of the National Assembly.