Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, has said that he is not in a hurry to die but live to complete his assignment for the people of the state.
Okorocha made the statement on Thursday while reacting to rumours of his ill health shortly after arriving Sam Mbakwe Airport Owerri, from a foreign trip.
Addressing a large crowd that gathered at the airport to welcome him, Okorocha described the rumours of his health condition as ‘false’.
“I am not in a hurry to die; I will live to complete my assignment for Imo people. I went to the land of the dead and our ancestors turned me back saying it was not yet time,” he said.
The governor however, acknowledged that he had a challenge that took him far from the physical.
He told the crowd that he was healthy and strong, adding that those who wished him dead were enemies of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemedo said last week that Okorocha traveled outside the country to attract investors to Imo.
Shortly after the governor’s departure, it was widely rumoured that he was dead, while some reports in the social media claimed that the governor’s health condition was bad.
NewsWireNGR recalls that only recently, the Imo State Government debunked reports that the state governor Rochas Okorocha was slapped by a ghost and is in an Indian hospital for medical treatment.
Even though the governor travelled to India, it was in order to meet with investors who had invited him for further discussions on the prospects of their coming to invest, said a government spokesman.
“Ailment or sickness has been there with mankind, the angle that makes the whole claim funny is the “ghost dimension”, and that explains how spiritually poor those behind this balderdash are,’’ said Sam Onwuemeodo, the chief press secretary to Okorocha.
The Okorocha’s media aide said that his boss is a Christian, and does not know what it means to see “a ghost or ghost women”.
“He travelled with few economic aides, and we informed Imo people and the general public and as God would have it, two days to the planned trip, the daughter gave birth to a baby boy and he would use the opportunity to visit his daughter,’’ Onwuemeodo stated.
According to Okorocha’s aide, the governor’s wife was already there with their daughter for what the Igbo people call “Ile Omugwo” (visit to a nursing mother by mother) and that Okorocha’s visit is to see the new baby.
Onwuemeodo noted that in the event of the governor being sick, the information would be made public.
Onwuemeodo blamed the report on what he tagged the antics of some of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) folks in the state.
“We accused them (PDP) of being behind the malicious audio because it came twenty four hours after the convincing defeat of the party by the APC in the re-run elections in Okigwe senatorial zone and the three state constituencies of Isiala Mbano, Oru East and Owerri West’’, he noted.
