The National Vice Chairman (South East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu, has described former Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, as a liability rather than an asset to the party in Imo State.

Speaking during an interview on TVC News while reacting to the lingering dispute over the Imo West Senatorial ticket, Arodiogbu was categorical in his assessment of the former governor.

“I will tell you clearly that Rochas is not an asset to our party at all,” he declared.

The APC South East leader went further to question Okorocha’s current political relevance and connection to the grassroots in Imo West.

“Rochas has not been to his federal constituency in the past three years because the road to his house is impassable,” Arodiogbu stated.

He maintained that the former governor’s prolonged absence from the constituency and lack of meaningful engagement with the people and party structures at the grassroots level had rendered him politically irrelevant in the current scheme of things.

Arodiogbu used the interview to reaffirm the position of the APC structures in Imo State and the South East zone regarding the disputed Imo West Senatorial primary.

He noted that the party chapter in Imo, the relevant zonal stakeholders, and key party organs had rejected the Federal High Court judgment that sought to recognise Okorocha as the candidate.

According to him, the judgment lacked any sound basis and had been widely condemned within the party. He disclosed that the zonal legal adviser had even indicated readiness to petition the judge before the National Judicial Council.

The National Vice Chairman insisted that Governor Hope Uzodimma remains the authentic and legitimate candidate of the APC for Imo West Senatorial District, having emerged from a properly conducted primary that was monitored and documented by both the party’s congress committee and Independent National Electoral Commission officials.

Arodiogbu dismissed claims and documents being circulated by the Okorocha camp as fake and forged, stressing that the only valid result of the primary was the one affirmed by the party’s internal processes and submitted to INEC.

He further rejected any attempt to introduce external political arrangements, including the so-called rainbow coalition, into the affairs of the APC in Imo and the South East, insisting that the party would rely on its own structures, popularity, and the strength of its candidates.