Okorocha At War With Catholic Bishop

The  Imo State Government and the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri are now on warpath  following the legalization of abortion in the state. 

Consequently, the Archbishop of the Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Anthony Obinna has demanded that the two obnoxious law containing the anti-life legislation said to have been signed into law by both Governor Rochas Okorocha and his predecessor Chief Achike Udenwa in 2012 and 2007 respectively be repealed.

Addressing newsmen in Owerri, on the forthcoming 2013 Odenigbo Lecture of the Diocese, Dr. Obinna regretted that in spite of the public outcry and pleas to the State House of Assembly not to pass the evil law legalizing abortion in 2010, Governor Okorocha quietly signed the bill as Imo State Law No 12 which he said contains the obnoxious lethal legislation on the 29th of May 2012 and thus coinciding with Nigeria’s Democracy Day.

The law, the bishop lamented, now threatens many conceived unborn children in the state with death.

The Catholic prelate also slammed ex-Governor Achike Udenwa for equally signing on 25th May 2007 “the gender and Equal Opportunity Law 2007 No 7” which he said, equally legalized abortion without considering the right of the unborn child.



“Since abortion is a murder of the helpless child, we as a God-fearing people in Imo State cannot stand by and allow this law to rampage our society in the name of  Women’s Reproductive and Gender Rights,” he warned.

While calling for the immediate repealing of the two abortion laws in the state, the Archbishop said that  although the church will not be mired in the nation’s murky waters of partisan politics, it will continue to demonstrate interest in the nation’s democratic process for the common good of the  people.

However, most people in the state have expressed the fear that the law did not only legalize abortion and prostitution  but may have also legalized the trafficking in human embryo as section 38(h)  and (I)of the legislation  seem to suggest.

The Catholic Medical Practitioners who were the first to speak vehemently against the law slammed the state legislators for passing such an obnoxious and inhuman law which has not only given license for promiscuity but has inadvertently sanctioned murder of unborn babies in the state, as well as encourages the trafficking of ovarian eggs in the state.

According to Dr Philip Njamanze, president of the association, considering the contents of the law as passed by the state legislators implies that a woman is entitled to have an abortion even at the ninth month no matter how she conceived it.

He noted that the section which gives the right to every woman to take decisions about her health needs and requirements implies that abortion has been legalized and operational in the state, irrespective of how the pregnancy was conceived.