THE People’s Democratic Party has urged Imo people to keep faith as the Governor Hope Uzodinma regime will soon expire.
The state publicity secretary, Emenike Nmeregini, made this known in a statement today.
According to the PDP, the state has collapsed under the current administration as evidenced in the non-payment of salaries and pensions to public servants which had led to repeated protests, ignored by the leadership.
The party said, “Imo has collapsed under Gov. Uzodinma. In the past two years, Senator Uzodinma has wilfully denied workers and retirees their salaries and pensions. When workers stage protests, they are tagged fake and brutalised by agents of the government. Also, the local government system has been completely emasculated, defunded and stripped of autonomy, thus, giving way for mass misery at the grassroots.
“We wish to encourage the people of Imo State to keep the spirit alive. This regime must expire very soon to give way for a PDP led government for the good of the people,” the statement reads.
The statement also recalled how “on January 14, 2020, a bizarre and controversial Supreme Court judgement truncated the popular mandate which Imo people had freely given to our party through our flagbearer, His Excellency, Emeka Ihedioha CON, at the March 9, 2019 governorship election. That judgement also enthroned the generally disputed regime of Senator Hope Uzodinma.
“The regime of Senator Uzodinma has without remorse, abdicated the primary obligation of government as prescribed by the Constitution, which is the security of lives and property. Rather, it has politicised an unfortunate security situation in the state which has continued to gulp countless innocent lives, every day. Today, bandits, terrorists, cannibals, kidnappers and unknown gunmen are almost overrunning the state.”
It further enumerated how Uzodinma’s administration has saddled the state with a huge debt profile while dismantling foundations and programmes already entrenched by previous administrations.
“Our party and indeed the people of Imo State regret that Senator Uzodinma suspended and summarily dismantled all the foundations and programmes our Rebuild Imo administration painstakingly put in place in all the sectors towards the rebuilding of Imo State.
“Our government commenced the Treasury Single Account, autonomy for local government system, Technical and Skills Development Colleges, Automated Payment System for prompt payment of salaries and pensions, agricultural revolution, infrastructural revolution, civil service reform, the revival of ISOPADEC, technology and ICT development, qualitative free education etc.
“These and other programmes of the Rebuild Imo Administration were dumped by Uzodinma even when he embarked on a borrowing spree, in most cases, nocturnally, which has placed Imo as the most indebted state in the entire South East. This is worrisome given that the regime still cannot point to any landmark project it has done in two years to justify the huge borrowings.
“Last year alone, the regime accessed over N59 billion loans from foreign and domestic sources. This year, 2022, Senator Uzodinma has perfected plans to borrow an additional N61 billion. When added to well over N103 billion which has come to the local government areas from FAAC under Uzodinma, the N105 billion which has come to the State, the N24 billion which the State has internally generated and the N10 billion which represents the 13% Oil Derivation, it is heartbreaking that there is nothing in Imo to show for the monies.
“This is obviously not the Imo State we envisioned for our children. Within the years under review, Senator Uzodinma has had neither a well-researched policy nor direction in the various sectors of the state. This is the calamity that has befallen our state.
“Our party notes with great pain that within two years, Senator Uzodinma has made our state, Imo, the unemployment capital of Nigeria. It is noteworthy that the relevant rating board, the Presidential Business Enabling Environment Council, has consistently placed Imo at the lowest rung of the ladder in terms of ease of doing business in Nigeria. Worse still, within two years, our state ranks highest in the South-East in terms of infant and maternal mortality rates,” the statement reads.
