Okorocha's raw deal from Charly Boy at mass for dad

Rochas Okorocha

Rochas Okorocha, Imo State Governor. What are you doing about this?

The first son of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Charles Oputa, a.k.a Charly Boy, threw decorum to the winds as he stopped Governor Rochas Okorocha from paying tribute to his father.

It was at the requiem mass on Friday organised for the late Supreme Court Justice at his country home in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.

It was conducted by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rt Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Oguta.

Newspaper reports said the mass had gone on smoothly until Okorocha was called upon by Bishop Kukah to pay his tribute to the departed judge.

Rochas Okorocha: raw deal from Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy
Rochas Okorocha: raw deal from Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy
Charly Boy: was he rude to Okorocha?
Charly Boy: was he rude to Okorocha?

According to Vanguard Online, Chief Okorocha was already speaking when Charley Boy walked angrily to the altar and snatched the micro-phone from the governor.

Guests, who included Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Governors Willie Obiano (Anambra), Theodore Orji (Abia); the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha and former governors of Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige and Mr Peter Obi were said to be bewildered by Charley Boy’s action.

And it was the first time a sitting governor would be given such public treatment in any part of Nigeria.

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The intervention of Bishop Kukah could not assuage Charly Boy’s anger as he insisted that no politician would take advantage of his father’s burial to score “cheap political” goals. He insisted that the Governor should not speak at the event.

Governor Okorocha stormed out of the venue moments after.

Reports said Okorocha’s government announcement that it had donated N20million to the Oputa family for the burial of their patriarch, whereas no such money was donated, made Charly Boy behaved in such a boyish way.

The government in a statement later deplored the incident, as “ugly and regrettable.”

“It is highly regrettable that the son of the late Justice, Mr Charles Emeka Oputa, aka, Charly Boy, threw caution to the wind and turned the church service into a political theatre that saw him acting or playing out the script he drafted in Abuja with some Imo politicians, who have remained cowed by the overwhelming popularity of Governor Rochas Okorocha, ” said Senior Special Assistant, SSA, Media, to Governor Okorocha, Mr Sam Onwuemodo.

Onwuemeodo insisted that the state government made “substantial financial input and also organized a special day of tributes for the late Justice Oputa at the expense of state government with Charly Boy also present with other members of the family.

.Do you support Charly Boy’s action? Was he rude to the governor? Have your say.

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