-  Govt. says it’s blackmail
Amby Uneze in Owerri
As well-meaning Nigerians react to the assault and harassment of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Most Rev. Anthony Obinna, by Imo State governor’s aides and suspected thugs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Ngwoma-Obube in Owerri North Local Government Area during a mass burial, former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, has expressed concern and deep shock over the matter and called on the Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, to render an unreserved apology to the cleric.
The former Deputy Speaker stated that such “reprehensible conduct could be exhibited in the House of God by those who are supposed to protect the citizenry,†noting that nothing can justify the assault on the Catholic Archbishop by the state government officials.
In a statement signed by his Media Officer, Chibuike Onyeukwu, Ihedioha pointed out that such “barbaric action by apologists of Okorocha is indicative of the rot and malaise the present administration is infested with. It is even more appalling that both the governor’s wife, Nkechi Okorocha, and his Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu, who were present in the church, maintained conspiratorial silence. They did nothing to call their miscreants to order. More worrisome is that this administration has sustained its notoriety with desecration of our value system.â€
Ihedioha further stated that Okorocha should immediately tender an unreserved apology to Archbishop Obinna and the entire Catholic community in the state for such reprehensible and sacrilegious conduct by the unruly aides. He described the incident as most unfortunate, stressing however, it was not the first time such desecration of the house of God was perpetrated by Okorocha’s aides.
According to him, remember the incident of 2015 governorship debate at Assumpta Cathedral, Owerri, where hired hoodlums by the state government brazenly pulled down the podium already built and decorated for the event on the watchful eyes of the same Uche Nwosu, the Chief of Staff. This development is indeed one of the series of abominations which we have continued to witness under Okorocha’s administration.
Confirming the assault on the Archbishop, Director of Communication, Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Fr. George Nwachukwu said that the Archbishop was actually assaulted by thugs suspected to have accompanied the APC chieftains to the funeral mass contrary to the state government denial that there was nothing like that.
Fr. Nwachukwu said if not for the quick intervention of Knights, Christian fathers and some good-spirited individuals, the unruly youths would have manhandled the prelate, adding that the insults, assaults, the calumny and dehumanization of the Archbishop were far more than beating.
Government had denied that the claim that some loyalists of Uche Nwosu assaulted the Archbishop at the burial mass, but insisting that no amount of blackmail would stop Nwosu from coasting home to victory in the forthcoming governorship polls.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo, said traducers having failed to mobilise people against Nwosu’s aspiration based on the fact that he is the governor’s son-in-law had resorted to leveling spurious allegations against him.
