Okorocha demands suit withdrawal, apology from monarchs
IMO State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has instructed the 40 monarchs who sued him at an Owerri High Court over their suspension to withdraw the suit “without further delay” and with apology to him, as their action was an embarrassment to him and his government.
Okorocha issued the directive during a meeting with monarchs in the state, excluding the four suspended from the Council of Traditional Rulers and the 40 who sued him over a panel instituted by the Eze Sam Ohiri-led council to try them for allegedly hosting former President Goodluck Jonathan during his election campaigns.
Meanwhile, the state government says it will set up a committee to hasten work on the Mmahu-Egbema power plant, located at Ohaji/Egbema local council.
Governor Okorocha disclosed on Tuesday during an unscheduled visit to the project site that President Muhammad Buhari asked him to ascertain why the work started in 2006 by the Niger Delta Power Holdings Company as one of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPS) was yet uncompleted.
Okorocha decried the epileptic power supply from the national grid, which he said was impeding his administration’s industrialisation programme, and urged the company to hasten its completion.
However, the executive director of the project, Dr. Albert Okorogu, blamed the delayed delivery of the project on the communities’ incessant demands for “compensation and buildings on the right of way (RoW), among others.”
Meanwhile, a community head, Eze Sylvester Okorondu, accused the main contractor, Rockson Limited, of not employing indigenes in the project, among others.
A statement on Wednesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, said the governor expressed sadness that the monarchs took him to the court without any “tenable, tangible and justifiable reason.” He also accused them of going to the media with a claim that the court had restrained him from suspending them.
The statement read in part: “Governor Rochas Okorocha has directed the 40 traditional rulers in the state who took him and the government to court to withdraw the suit without further delay and to also tender an apology because they took that action to insult and embarrass him and his government.”
However, he insisted that the four monarchs were suspended by the Council of the Traditional Rulers, not him, while directing that they should be paid any outstanding salary within a week.
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Okorocha the beef
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