Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and Senator Chris
Anyanwu have given divergent versions of a fracas involving their
convoys at Azaraegbelu, Owerri North in Imo State on Wednesday.
Speaking to 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, the Senator said she proceeded to Mbaise
for a function and was on her way back when she noticed, “an
intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of
security operatives, conventional and non-conventional”.
Anyanwu, a former broadcaster, said it was about
5.30pm and she had directed her convoy to veer off the road 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 pulps.
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 Senator described the assault on her convoy as “a misplaced show of power.”
But, the governor’s Special Assistant on Media, Ebere
Uzoukwa, dismissed Anyanwu’s claims as false, saying 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 mahandling 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 unauthorised 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 authorised
to use siren, has chosen the part of dishonour, lawlessness as well as
refusing totally to subject herself to constituted authority.”
