Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has reacted to Governor Hope Uzodimma’s announcement of renaming the Eastern Palm University to K. O. Mbadiwe University shortly after the son of the late politician and ambassador, Greg Mbadiwe decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The senator representing Imo West senatorial district who stated that the university was set up based on a public-private partnership between the state and the Rochas Foundation, added that it will be contemptuous for Governor Hope Uzodimma to rename the Eastern Palm University.
Okorocha also faulted the State assembly’s repealment of the law establishing the university. He said;
“The law establishing the University prescribed the PPP arrangement.
“Since that was the setting, the Assembly, therefore, defaulted or had acted in contravention of the law by not getting the consent or agreement of the two parties involved, on the reported repeal.
“In other words, the repeal only existed in the imaginations of those behind it.”
The Senator who revealed that he established and got licences for five universities and four polytechnics while he was governor, accused the lawmakers and the state government of disregarding a pending court case on the matter.
Okorocha added;
“For both the Assembly and the government to be taking one-sided decisions on the fate of the university, without reference to the main party and the court matter, has only made their actions questionable and contemptuous.
“A university is not a street one can rename or change its name at a polling unit where he had gone to revalidate his membership of APC. So, the claimed renaming of the university does not add up in reality.
“The purported repeal of the law establishing the university without recourse to the position of one of the parties has also made the Assembly a willing party in the matter in court.
“Until the court decides on the matter before it, there is nothing anybody can do about that.”
