A former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha has broken his silence following reports that Eastern Palm University has been taken over by the Imo State Government.
The senator representing Imo west in the National Assembly accused his successor, Hope Uzodinma, of trying to score a cheap political with the report.
Okorocha made this known in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Sam Onwuemeodo, in Owerri, the state capital, on Friday.
He said the truth is that the university cannot exist within another university, with each having recognition and operational licence from the same source.
The statement read in part, “Governor Uzodinma, for almost two years, has been talking and dealing with Okorocha’s achievements and also celebrating Okorocha, without his knowing it.
“For the sake of emphasis, the lmo State Governor, for reasons best known to him, has made the Eastern Palm University part of his anti-Okorocha politics and had claimed to have changed the Eastern Palm University to Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University.
“This is absurd. Indeed, amusing, because you do not build something on nothing.
“Cases with the Eastern Palm University as the subject matter, have been going on in various courts of the land, and these are courts of competent jurisdiction because of government’s actions and inactions on the University.”
He said Uzodinma has chosen to play lingering and worrisome politics with the university and the reason he would not wait for the courts to determine cases concerning the institution.
Okorocha further said patriotic lmo citizens and Nigerians of goodwill would ask and expect an answer as to whether Uzodinma built another university at Ogboko, for which he had gone to the NUC office to secure recognition and operational licence.
“Honestly, this does not give a good impression about the government. The whole development leaves much to be desired,” he said.