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PDP, APC Trade Words over Gov. Uzodinma’s Scorecard in Three Years

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo have disagreed over Gov. Hope Uzodimma’s scorecard within three years in office.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Uzodimma assumed office on Jan.

14, 2020, following a judgment of the Supreme Court which affirmed his victory at the 2019 governorship election in the state.

While the PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr Collins Opurozor, said Uzodimma’s three years were enmeshed in economic stagnation, mass penury, insecurity and infrastructural decay, the APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Cajetan Duke, dismissed the statement.

In a statement signed by the PDP publicity secretary and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri, Opurozor argued that the greatest casualties of Gov.

Uzodimma’s emergence are the Imo people.

He alleged that Uzodimma had, in the past three years, worked so hard to ensure that all the institutions of democracy in the state are dismantled and full-blown dictatorship firmly established.

Opurozor further claimed that bloodshed, poor healthcare, collapse of education, dearth of agricultural productivity, conscription of the political space and violation of human rights have become the order of the day.

“For instance, the local government system, which is a mechanism put in place to expand and sustain the democratic space and spread democratic values, has been destroyed in Imo State.

“This is a huge tragedy! Imo is a state that has over 70 per cent of her entire population living in the rural areas.

“Yet, the only channel through which governance can be delivered to the people has been completely run aground,” he contended.

Opurozor also claimed that in last 36 months, Uzodinma had received from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) a total of N180.6 billion meant for the Local Governments in the state.

“Today, there is nothing on ground that shows that even a kobo has gotten to the Local Government Areas.

“Sen. Hope Uzodimma must, without any further delay, tell Imo people where he kept the N180.6 billion belonging to the Local Governments,” he said.

He argued that Uzodimma had made incessant borrowings a state policy which had plunged the state into irredeemable debt slavery.

According to him, Imo is currently the most indebted Igbo state, with a debt profile which stands at N220 billion.

“That means that the regime of Sen. Uzodinma has doubled the debt profile in less than three years and the fundamental question is: What has the regime done with over N100 billion it has borrowed so far?”

He said in spite of the borrowings, Uzodimma had made no effort at re-jigging investments in the hugely vital agro-industrial sector where Imo has major comparative advantage.

“What Senator Uzodinma really needs to explain to Imo people is how he diverted a whopping sum of N56 billion on the pretence of constructing the 36-kilometer Owerri-Orlu road.

“Does the administration in Imo want the people to believe that a kilometer of road was done at the rate of N1.5 billion?

“This same Craneburg Construction Company, which works for Uzodinma, has also done the Lekki-Epe Road in Lagos State and the Ibadan Circular Road in Oyo State.

“In both instances, even drainages and terrains rougher than Imo, the cost never exceeded N450 million per kilometer, but in Uzodinma’s Imo, the cost of a single kilometer of road by the same company suddenly became N1.5 billion,” he said.

Opurozor estimated that the 2023 budget revenue of the state would be sourced from FAAC, 13 per cent derivation, internally generated revenue, intervention grants would amount to N120.6 billion.

He maintained that Gov. Uzodimma is already planning to spend N475 billion within the year with the deficit of N354 billion which would be raised through borrowings.

“The loans would be solely dedicated to expanding Uzodimma’s political war chest and financing sundry other electoral malpractices, including massive vote buying.

“Already, agents of Imo APC have started distributing forms, requesting for bank accounts and PVC details of Imo voters so as to commence the first phase of this brazen electoral fraud,” he alleged.

He claimed that the party had intercepted credible intelligence about the planned role which the Uzodinma-backed Ebubeagu Militia would play in this process of derailing democracy in the state.

He therefore urged the Inspector-General of Police to immediately disband Ebubeagu Militia, claiming that since Ebubeagu began its operations in the state, insecurity, killings, abductions and arson have risen astronomically.

But dismissing the claims however, the APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Cajetan Duke, said the PDP should rather praise Uzodimma for the giant strides of development in the past three years.

Duke said: “We are glad today that the opposition PDP has confirmed by the contents of their press conference of the reconstruction of the Owerri-Orlu road.

“Their argument on the cost of the project is neither here nor there!

“PDP should stop reminding Imolites of their seven months illegal occupation of Douglas House and the unimaginable looting of our common patrimony.

“When they talk about the January 14th, 2020, landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, Imo PDP validates our position that the insecurity in the state is politically contrived,” he added.

Duke contended that the PDP’s argument on borrowing had reduced opposition politics to a roadside gossip as borrowing to fund investment in the critical sector of the economy was not a crime.

“Almost three years in office, nobody, including the opposition PDP, has accused Gov. Hope Uzodimma of converting public wealth to personal and private uses.

“No one has accused the governor of building a new house or renovating his old house in the village.

“Nobody has accused Uzodimma of appropriating any public land or asset to himself or any member of his family since inception of this administration,” he argued.

The APC publicity secretary further described PDP’s accusation of borrowing money to compromise the forthcoming general elections as an “acknowledgement of defeat”.

He said Imo PDP was only intimidated by the popularity of the APC-led shared prosperity administration of Gov. Hope Uzodimma.

“Their strategy is to do everything humanly possible to discredit the outcome of the forthcoming election.

“While they were busy labouring, albeit in vain, to undermine this administration, the Supreme Court, today nullified the Imo West senatorial primaries of the PDP,” he added. (NAN)

POLITICS

INEC Staff Welfare Association Warns Members Against Manipulating Election Results

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The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.

The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.

He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.

“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.

“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.

“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”

He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.

Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.

He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.

He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.

According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.

Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)

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POLITICS

Be Thankful APC Didn’t Probe Your Administrations, Okechukwu Tells PDP

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A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.

Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.
This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)

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LG Administration Central to Democracy in Nigeria -Nwoko

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Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).

He was represented by his Chief of Staff.
He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.
“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)

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