Abia Students Mobilise Residents For PPA

The National Association of Abia Students has started the process of mobilising Abia residents to vote for the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) governorship aspirant, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka, an official has said.

Mr Philips Ogbuagu, spokesman of the group, told The Tide in Umuahia on Sunday that the students had seen convincing reasons to throw their weight behind Ohajuruka.

He said that the students decided to stand behind Ohajuruka after a thorough examination of all the antecedents of the aspirants seeking to govern the state.

“We are non-political and will only support the most credible of all the aspirants.”

“We have volunteered ourselves to be part of the ongoing process that will remove the incumbent governor in office and we are resolved to mobilise over one million people in the state for this cause,” Ogbuagu said.

Ogbuagu wondered why the state government could jettison the free education that residents of the state enjoyed between 1999 and 2007 and introduced a compulsory levy from primary to secondary levels.

“Much damage has been done in this sector and those of us in the higher institutions have not had it so good. So we sue for a change.”

“There has been an unprecedented increament in school fees since the life of this administration and available statistics show that school fees have risen to more than 250 per cent in three years,” he said.

He said that the students had weighed the performance of the current administration vis-a-avis past administrations and had come to the conclusion that the state needed a visionary and sincere leader.

“It is disheartening that residents of Aba had borne the brunt of inhuman policies of this administration.”

“The roads in the commercial city are impassable; business activities are at standstill while hoodlums terrorise residents; yet we claim to have a government in charge,” he said.

Ogbuagu said that there should be a paradigm shift in the governance of the state, adding that the older generation had disappointed the youth in the state.

“This is the time for us to take our destiny in our hands and we see Ohajuruka as one of us and as a young man we will have the courage to ask him questions if he fails to meet our yearnings,” Ogbuagu said.