- Senator Anyanwu’s claims are false—Okorocha Aide
Barely two weeks after security operatives attached to governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state battered a commercial bus operator and damaged his bus around the warehouse junction in Owerri for allegedly disrupting the governor’s convoy, Imo residents Wednesday, witnessed another show of shame when security details attached to the convoy of Governor Rochas Okorocha allegedly unleashed an unwarranted assault on the convoy of Senator Chris Anyanwu in Azaraegbelu, Owerri North in Imo state.
While speaking to newsmen in Owerri the Imo State capital, Anyanwu, who represents Imo East senatorial district at the National Assembly, said she had visited Okorocha earlier in the day to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter and had requested if there were areas she could lend support.
According to her, she had thereafter 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’.
The senator said it was around 5.30pm at the time 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.
“The unwarranted beating and assault on my convoy compelled me to come down from my vehicle as 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’ ”
Anyanwu noted that as at the time of briefing newsmen, the Governor had not called to apologize for the action or explain it. She added that she had been a victim of inexplicable intimidation and harassment.
“Any time I attend official functions in the state, I am harassed, intimidated and often excluded from the protocol list” The Senator described the assault on her convoy as ‘a misplaced show of power’ , regretting that Nigerians are living in a part of the world where governors have the power of life and death.”
The Senator’s driver, Odilichukwu Uka was thereafter rushed to an undisclosed hospital with a broken head and bruises in other parts of his body.
Meanwhile, Okorocha’s Special Assistant on Media, Ebere Uzoukwa has dismissed Senator Anyanwu’s claims as false saying that Governor Okorocha escaped death when the Senator’s convoy rammed into the governor’s convoy narrowly missing the staff car.
According to a statement signed by Uzoukwa, the Senator after breaching the governor’s convoy still alighted form her vehicle and ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.
“The Senator further went berserk and descended on the security men slapping both the governor’s Aide 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.”
Adding further, Okorocha’s aides said; “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 part of dishonor, lawlessness as well as refusing totally to subject herself to constituted authority.
“According to the Governor’s aide, by comprising the security of the governor, Senator Anyanwu has committed a serious security breach that requires further investigation.
