Immediate past governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim yesterday begged the people of the state not to retire him from politics untimely, saying doing so would make him go begging.
Ohakim also appealed to them to allow him complete his second term in 2015, expressing fears that if the PDP failed to win the governorship election in 2015, most of the current political gladiators in the party would be retired by Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Speaking at the Peoples Democratic Party State secretariat where he formally declared his interest to contest for the governorship position in the state, the ex-governor stated that denying him the governorship seat of the state in 2015 would amount to the party and the people retiring him from politics at a very tender below 60 years, adding that he not want to go begging.
In his words “they want to gang up to retire me. Please don’t retire me at this tender age and don’t allow them to retire me. The only I know how best to do is administration, giving meaning to lives. If you retire me from politics, will I go begging?”
He described his ouster in 2011 as divine tragedy, stating that he had learnt his lessons from his past mistakes during his first stint as the governor, even as he promised to give the state a better governance if given the opportunity to complete his second term.
Ohakim insisted that he is the only governorship aspirant in the PDP that forgot something in the state government house and has the capacity to defeat Governor Okorocha.
“I’ll match him governor for governor, project for project, one tenure for one tenure and truth versus falsehood”
While insisting that he did not lose the 2011 election, he told the party that he is only man that has well laid down structure from the ward to state level, adding that the governorship ticket of the PDP was still with him.
The PDP, he added, would not find it difficult to win the forthcoming election in 2015 if he would be given the opportunity to return.
The former governor lamented that less than three years after Owelle Rochas Okorocha succeeded him, Imo State had been turned upside down with what he referred to as, “China Projects”.
He assured them that all the valuable projects he started would be completed if given another opportunity, lamenting that if he had been allowed to complete his tenure, about 400,000 Imo youths currently out of job, would have found solace and the economy would not have been stifled with lack of money in circulation.
He warned the PDP not to allow those he described as “monetricians” to come and destroy the party with their money in the name of aspiring for the party’s ticket.
