Palpable tension gripped Imo State two days ago as hundreds of women mobilized by the Minister of State for Education, Viola Onwuliri, attempted to breach the Government House in protest against Governor Rochas Okorocha’s administration.
Soldiers reportedly under orders from Ms. Onwuliri also heightened the tension as they positioned one armored personnel carrier (APC) at the entrance of the Government House. Some sources claimed that the soldiers assaulted Mr. Okorocha’s supporters who came out to oppose the rampaging women sponsored by the minister.
Ms. Onwuliri and Governor Okorocha have been engaged in a series of verbal feuds, with the minister vowing not to allow the governor to work against President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election.
Our sources said the women who invaded Government House in Owerri, the Imo State capital, were widows recruited from the state’s 27 local government areas. As early as 6.30 a.m., the women assembled along Okigwe Road in Owerri, chanting anti-Okorocha slogans. They then proceeded to Government House with a mock coffin, but security men attached to Government House dispersed them.
However, a source at the governor’s official address stated that a detachment of soldiers from the 34th Artillery Brigade stormed the Government House and assaulted several government officials identified by the protesting women.
Governor Okorocha, who arrived at the scene while the commotion was ongoing, claimed that leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state led by Ms. Onwuliri had hired thugs dressed as women from neighboring Abia State to “burn down” the Government House.
Mr. Okorocha, who was escorted to the venue by thousands of women and youths, claimed that soldiers invited by Ms. Onwuliri had beaten up innocent people and created tension among the staff of the Government House.
According to the governor, “Onwuliri claimed to have the support of President Goodluck Jonathan to seal up the Government House, so she invited soldiers to beat up innocent people and this will not be accepted. Her mission was to set the Government House ablaze, using the Army to perpetrate the crime.”
Pleading with his supporters to remain calm, the governor insisted that the protesters were not indigenes of the state but were mobilized from Abia State to cause chaos in Imo State.