Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State Governor, on Sunday claimed that he possessed the capacity to defeat former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in any election in Adamawa State.
Abubakar, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, hails from Adamawa State.
Okorocha spoke in response to declaration by the former Vice President that he would lead the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to take back Imo State and Nigeria at large.
A statement issued by Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, read: “The Former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was in Owerri for a meeting with the stakeholders of the PDP in the State over his presidential ambition.
“While meeting with the PDP Stakeholders in the State, he was reported to have told them that he would lead the struggle for the PDP to take over Imo and Nigeria in 2019.
“He also tried to run down the governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and his government.
“What we do not take from anybody is blackmail against the government of Rochas Okorocha. We would do our best to set the record straight. The former Vice-President would have done his meeting without scratching the governor and the government he heads in the State. And that is where we come in.
“The former Vice-President therefore leave Imo and Governor Rochas Okorocha alone and face his worrisome challenges. And if he does not know, Governor Rochas Okorocha will defeat him in any part of the Country including his Adamawa State in any election involving two of them.
“He does not therefore have what it takes to lead any struggle that will return the PDP to power in the State or the Country in 2019. That promise was a false one.
“To say the least, that promise of returning Imo to PDP was very deceitful knowing full well that in 2011 Rochas ran on the ticket of APGA that had no structure on ground and defeated an incumbent PDP governor with a very wide margin.
“In 2015, he took the soul of APGA to merge with other parties to form APC and defeated two powerful Candidates of PDP and APGA, even with the PDP Candidate having the Federal might behind him. Interestingly Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was not in exile when all these happened.
“Imo PDP is dead. The monumental achievements of Governor Okorocha in less than eight years have destroyed the Imo PDP because the Party has no claim again to make before Imo people.
“And that is the reason all those who made the Party thick in the State have all left to join either APGA or APC. Today, all the former guber aspirants in the PDP are doing so in APGA including Chief Ikedi Ohakim. They have left the PDP for two people.”
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