ANPP Promises Free Education In Imo

The Chairman of All Nigerian Peoples Party in Imo, Chief Vitalis Ajumbe, said the party would offer free and compulsory education in the state if it wins the governorship election in April.

Ajumbe, who made the promise in an interview with newsmen in Owerri on Thursday, said it would be from primary to university levels.

“We shall place priority on the education of our people because it is the greatest gift you can give a child. With proper education, crime would be drastically reduced,’’ he said.

He emphasised that the free education policy of the administration would be fully implemented. “It will be totally free and without any payment in disguise’’.

“The policy will compare with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s free education in the defunct West.

“It made it possible for the former region to have more educated people in Nigeria today than other areas,” he added.

Ajumbe also said the party would introduce skills acquisition scheme for the youth and also provide the enabling environment for the growth of small and medium enterprises.

“Our graduates will be encouraged to acquire different skills to be able to set up small enterprises and become employers of labour.

“This will stop them from roaming the streets in search of employment many years after graduation.

“If we can achieve that, then the problem of youth unemployment currently ravaging the state would have been solved,’’ he said.

He said ANPP administration in the state would copy the blue print on development by the late Dr Sam Mbakwe, a former Governor of the old Imo.

Ajumbe said the party, if voted into power, would give serious attention to the development of the power and industrial sectors in line with Mbakwe’s dream.

Ajumbe said INEC performed below average in the just concluded voter registration and should ensure substantial improvement in the April polls.

“The commission must avoid the lapses that characterised the voter registration because there will be serious problem during the election if the hiccups were not taken care of,” he said.

He said the party was sensitising its supporters on the need to vote and stay back to guard their votes at the polling booths in order to ensure that their votes counted.

“By so doing, it will be difficult for anybody to try to rig the election or snatch the ballot boxes when the voters are still there guarding their votes,” he said.