Stop deceiving Imolites over my University, Rochas Okorocha tells Hope Uzodinma, Imo Assembly

Former Govenror of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, have told Senator Hope Uzodinma, and the Imo State House of Assembly, to stop deceiving the people of Imo State, over the alleged recovery of the Eastern Palm University.

Okorocha made the reaction through a Press Release by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, and it reads as follows:

PRESS RELEASE

RE: THE PURPORTED REPEAL OF THE LAW ESTABLISHING EASTERN PALM UNIVERSITY & THE RE-NAMING OF THE UNIVERSITY  

– THE ASSEMBLY & GOVT. SHOULD STOP DECEIVING THE PUBLIC  

The Imo State Government, with Chief Hope Uzodinma as governor, had taken three wrong steps with regard to the Eastern Palm University, in the past 72 hours.

The government had announced that it has taken over the ownership of the University. The government had also gotten the House of Assembly to purportedly repeal the law establishing the University. The government has also announced that, it has re-named or changed the name of the University to K.O. Mbadiwe University. 

Our reactions:

(1) The purported repeal of the law establishing the Eastern Palm University has authenticated our claim that it was a creation of the law. The law establishing the University prescribed the PPP arrangement. Since that was the setting, the Assembly therefore, defaulted or had acted in contravention of the law by not getting the Consent or agreement of the two parties involved, on the reported repeal. In other words, the repeal only existed in the imaginations of those behind it.

(2) Both the Assembly and the Government have never denied that there is a matter pending in a Court of Competent Jurisdiction on the Eastern Palm University. And for both the Assembly and the government to be taking one sided decisions on the fate of the University, without reference to the main Party and to the Court matter, have only made their actions questionable and contemptuous. 

(3) University is not a street one can rename or change its name at a polling unit where he had gone to revalidate his membership of APC. So, the claimed renaming of the University does not add up in reality.

(4) The purported repeal of the law establishing the University by the Assembly without recourse to the position of one of the parties, has also made the Assembly a willing party in the matter in Court. And until the Court takes decision on the matter before it, there is nothing anybody can do about that.

(5) Okorocha had established and gotten the licences of five Universities and four Polytechnics while he was governor. Let governor Uzodinma also tell his audience, why he is not talking about those Universities and Polytechnics, but only interested in the Eastern Palm University with PPP Status? 

Sam Onwuemeodo

Special Adviser (Media) to the former Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha