By Esther Ibe, Owerri
The police in Imo State on Sunday arrested a former governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha, after a fracas over the sealing of a hotel belonging to Mr Okorocha’s wife by the state government.
A photo being circulated online showed the former governor sitting along a corridor of a building that looks like a police station.
Mr Okorocha’s aide, Ebere Nzewuji said the former governor has been arrested and is detained at the police headquarters in Owerri.
“He has been arrested by the police on the orders of the governor,” Mr Nzewuji said.
“The police are telling him that he is under arrest. It is so clear now that he is being arrested. And he is being detained.”
Mr Okorocha, a serving senator, is accused of forcefully unsealing his wife’s hotel, Royal Spring Palm Hotel, Owerri, which was sealed two days ago by the commissioner for lands and physical planning on behalf of the Imo State Government.
The commissioner said the hotel was built, without permission, on government land.
But Mr Okorocha’s aide, Mr Nzewuji, denied that the senator tried to unseal the property.
“When he arrived at the premises, they were confronted with thugs who had guns and machetes, and they were attacking him and his entourage.
“He (Okorocha) can’t go there to make trouble, he went to ask questions. A staff member was beaten up, even the hotel’s guests still had their property inside the hotel.
“He wasn’t going to unseal the property,” the aide said.
Mr Okorocha’s spokesperson, Sam Onwuemeodo, later issued a statement on the incident, saying Governor Hope Uzodinma’s aide on special duties, Chinasa Nwaneri, led the thugs that allagedly attacked the senator and his entourage.
He said the governor’s aide was backed by the police in the state.
Reacting to the development, the spokesman of Imo State Police Command, SP Ikeokwu Orlando, said the command received a distress call of violent unrest at Royal Spring Estate and mobilized men who went to bring the situation under control.
He said on investigation it was discovered that the violence was caused by an attempt by Senator Okorocha to forcefully reclaim the estate sealed by the state government.
The PPRO said the command invited Okorocha for questioning on the reason he broke into an estate sealed by the state government, adding that the Commissioner of Police has ordered a full investigation into the matter and if found culpable, the command will not hesitate to arraign the former governor in court for prosecution.
Two in-laws of Okorocha, Dr Uzo Anwuka and Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, who also accompanied him on the operation, were still being searched for at the point of filing this report.
The thugs who reportedly came with Okorocha were alleged to have shot at a government team comprising of police, army and thugs, resulting in the exchange of fire between them.
They were said to have run away when they noticed a superior firing power and the overwhelming number of the government team.
There was an unconfirmed report of the death of two and serious injuries to five others.