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By Nasir Kura
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state Monday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja, and expressed confidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would issue him Certificate of Return as the Senator-elect for Imo West Senatorial District.
Fielding questions from correspondents after a private meeting with the president, Okorocha said he is only waiting patiently for the certificate of return from INEC.
“As it stands today, I am just waiting patiently for the release of my certificate of return for an election that I duly won. And I am hoping that INEC will release my certificate as I have not contravened any section of the constitution, neither have I done anything wrong to warrant the withholding of my certificate.
“I pray and hope that INEC will do what is just and right. INEC conducted elections, results were declared by the returning officer and I won; only to hear one week later that somebody wrote a petition that he made that declaration under duress; the question is where?
“Was it in his private house or at the collation centre? If it was at the collation centre, members of the SSS were there, policemen were there, as well as international observers and INEC officials. So, who actually put him under duress? The man has not been able to say that; he has never made a statement about that. So I think INEC will want to do the right thing very soon,” he said.
Okorocha said he was in the Presidential Villa to request the president to visit the state to inaugurate some of his projects, especially the new cargo airport terminal, warehouses and cargo shelves.
He said the state government also completed a new police headquarters and a new prison headquarters in the state which are all federal government projects undertaken by the state. Imo State Government.
“We have well over a thousand projects verifiable to be commissioned; we are requesting Mr President to kindly commission the Federal ones and see how many of the state ones he can commission too.
“The 27 model hospitals are much bigger than the state will need, but those hospitals were built for possible concessions; as people come, they take over the hospitals and equip them. But we have some of them running already; the one in Ikeduru is fully running and is being taken over by an American company; we have some taken by some Churches and private organisations.
“That is our style of making Imo State a tourist destination for Nigeria by building those 27 general hospitals, a diagnostic centre, a free child and mother hospital and the Imo Medical Centre. So, put together, we have 30 hospitals with close to 10,000 beds built by this administration; those hospitals are futuristic so to say.
“They have been roofed; they have all been tiled and fenced; what remains is that we are looking for management because if you pack in now, you might not have the need for it; we are talking about the future, not now,’’ he said.
On the Imo state governorship election, Okorocha said the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mr Emeka Ihedioha, did not win the election as he allegedly flouted Section 179 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said the returning officer was not fit to be a professor; and should be charged for not respecting the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
