I have no plans to join APGA, says Okorocha

• We will not accept you, party declares
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has debunked trending media reports that he was planning to re-join the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The reports claimed that the plans were due to the hostilities that he is currently facing from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

In a statement yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, he described the reports as “concocted.”

According to him, as a founding member of the party, he will not leave the party.

“Okorocha is one of the principal founders of the APC. And when he took the mainstream of APGA to join the merger that gave birth to APC, he was not under any pressure to do so. He even took that action at the risk of his second tenure.”

The statement added that Okorocha also mobilised people for the APC in Imo, Ebony, Abia, Enugu and Anambra states.

“They won’t be allowed to reap where they never sowed. Their deceit will expire in no distant time. And no landlord would leave his house for unfaithful tenants,” Okorocha said.

But, the state Vice Chairman of APGA, C. Rowland, said the party led by Peter Ezeobi in the state, would not re-admit Okorocha.

He cited the insults that APGA got from Okorocha after he used the party’s platform to win the governorship election.

Rowland said: “There is no iota of truth in the news and propaganda that the leadership of APGA has accepted and re-admitted the estranged Okorocha.

“It is absolutely false from the pit of hell. This is the clear handiwork of the opposition to degrade the rising positive profile of APGA in Imo State.

Meanwhile, the governor has disclosed plans to empower about 50,000 petty traders whose capital base is less than N10, 000.

He said the gesture would be encapsulated under the yet-to-be launched empowerment programme, known as “My people, my people.”

The governor announced a special package for the landlords who renovated their houses along Wethdral and Douglas Roads.

“We have also manufactured some special trucks for hawking. So those who are bent on hawking will no longer carry their goods on their heads. We have about 1, 000 hawking carts with uniforms to give to them,” he said.