The motorcade fracas involving the Governor of Imo State Rochas, Okorocha and Senator Chris Anyanwu is already generating bad blood between both camps.
An indication of this is the divergent accounts of the incident which occurred at Azaraegbelu, Owerri North in Imo State on Wednesday.
Briefing newsmen in Owerri on Thursday, Anyanwu, who represents Imo East Senatorial District, said she had visited Okorocha earlier in the day to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter.
Thereafter, she proceeded to Mbaise for a function and was on her way back at about 5: 30pm, when she noticed, “an intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of security operatives, conventional and non-conventional”.
Narrating further, the former broadcaster, said she directed her convoy to swerve and stop for the governor’s convoy to pass, but to her surprise, the governor’s security men stopped and blocked her convoy, dragged out the driver of her pilot vehicle and beat him to a state of coma.
She added, “The unwarranted beating and assault on my convoy compelled me to alight from my vehicle and even at that, the assault continued.
“They had dragged my driver into the bush to shoot him when I started shouting that their action was ungodly and barbaric. To my utter shock, Okorocha was watching the entire episode complacently and had even shouted orders to his men saying ‘disarm her security.”
“The act was a misplaced show of power,” she added.
However, the Governor’s Special Assistant on Media, Ebere Uzoukwa, rose in defense of his boss, describing Anyanwu’s claim as false. In fact, the aide said Okorocha escaped death when the Senator’s convoy rammed into his convoy.
Uzoukwa said the Senator after breaching the Governor’s convoy, alighted from her vehicle and ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.
He said, “The Senator further went berserk and descended on the security men slapping both the Governor’s Aide-de-Camp and Chief Detail. She also rained abuses on the Governor as well as calling him unprintable names.
“However, it is interesting to mention that the Governor’s security men exhibited decency, professionalism and maturity as they never fell into the temptation of manhandling anyone in the Senator’s convoy irrespective of her unruly attitude and that of the Naval ratings in her convoy.”
The statement added, “Recall that His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha recently banned the use of siren by unauthorized persons in the state as part of stringent security measures to fight crime. This calls to question why a serving senator, who obviously is not authorized to use siren, has chosen the path of dishonor, lawlessness as well as refusing totally to subject herself to constituted authority.”
Analysts say the brawl is likely to heat up political tensions in the South-East state.
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