Says he will be president
Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has urged chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja to discountenance the petition written by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Justice Taiwo Taiwo for lack of merit.
The Imo State governor has also stated that his current political battles, especially the seizure of his Certificate of Return as the Imo West senator-elect, were only preparing him towards becoming president.
In the said petition, EFCC had alleged professional misconduct and abuse of judicial powers against the judge for granting an order enforcing Okorocha’s fundamental human rights.
Okorocha, in the letter to the NJC chairman and FHC Chief Judge titled: ‘Re: EFCC Reports Justice Taiwo to NJC over Restraining Order on Okorocha, Saraki’, stated that “contrary to the impression being created by the EFCC through its chairman, the order granted by Justice Taiwo was made pursuant to two fundamental human rights suits that I filed before the court.”
He added that the move against him by the EFCC “smacks of political vendetta and persecution.”
The governor stated that EFCC operatives ransacked his house in Jos, Plateau State, in May 2017 with the hope of finding something incriminating against him but they found nothing.
He added that EFCC had also arrested almost all his principal staff “and in every case, insisting that they must make statements to indict me. When they refused, they were kept in custody for two days.”
According to Okorocha, the EFCC is persecuting him “to distract, decimate and prevent me from being sworn in as a senator representing the people of Imo West senatorial district on June 6, 2019, when the ninth National Assembly will be inaugurated.”
He added: “My political opponents accused me of nursing an ambition to contest for the position of the Deputy Senate President. In their reasoning, they said the position would give me an edge to contest as president in 2023, so everything must be done to get me out of the way.”
Okorocha stated that in order to shield himself from the unwarranted attacks by EFCC, he approached the Federal High Court for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
The Imo State governor noted: “Instead of Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC to prove its case before the court, having submitted to its jurisdiction, it has resorted to cheap blackmail, needless name-calling and unwarranted arm-twisting, all in a bid to achieve their sinister motive of decimating me by all means.”
Meanwhile, the Imo State governor has also stated that his current political battles, especially the seizure of his Certificate of Return as the Imo West senator-elect, were only preparing
him towards becoming
president.
Okorocha, who spoke yesterday during his valedictory thanksgiving service held at the Government House Chapel in Owerri, said that “those who want me to go to prison will go to prison before me.”
According to him, the elite hated him because he decided to approach the affairs of the state differently.
Describing himself as “the most criticised politician” in the country, Okorocha said that all the ploy to stop him from going to the Senate will fail.
Okorocha said, “I tell you, I am the most criticised person in Nigeria today. I don’t know why the entire elite hate me with cruelty.
“My Senate ambition is still a battle. More than 30 people have joined the suit to fight me. All these, I will overcome.
“They are only preparing me for the glory ahead.”
Continuing, the outgoing governor said, “Mark it, I will be president of Nigeria. I said this on this altar so that the kingdom of God will rise against those fighting to stop me.
“Also, those who think they will put me in prison will go to prison before me.
“They don’t want me to be at the National Assembly, but I will be there. I know I am the last man standing, but I will not give up.”
