Politics
Party Chieftain Admonishes Uzodinma Over Crisis
The Imo State Chairman of the Action Alliance (AA), Ifeanyi Okponwa-Eze, has admonished the state Governor, Hope Uzodinma, not to set the state on fire over the conflict between him and his political opponents.
Senator Rochas Okorocha and his supporters had clashed with the supporters of Governor Hope Uzodinma over the state government’s sealing of the Royal Spring Palm Hotel and Appartments owned by the senator’s wife.
Okponwa-Eze who stated this yesterday in Oweri, urged the
Governor Uzodinma to channel his political energies into delivering good governance to the people of the state.
‘Imo people will be happy to see the roads tarred, it will be gratifying to workers and pensioners to receive their salaries and pensions, than watching the governor displaying his power in a political fight, while they languish in pain and penury,” he stated
Okponwa-Eze said that Uzodinma has failed to acquit himself creditably in his one year in office.
He said the governor neither delivered in payment of salaries and pensions nor provision of infrastructure in the last one year in office.
The chairman frowned that World Bank projects in the state had been abandoned owing to the unjustifiable removal of the World Bank Project Coordinator in the state by the state government for political reasons.
He made reference to the Urualla gully erosion project in which the short-lived Emeka Ihedioha administration paid the sum of N500 million as counterpart fund, which he said had been abandoned by the current administration.
The AA Chairman raised concerns that the people of Urualla might be sacked from their homes if the rains returned without the project being completed.
He wondered how a responsible leader would abandon such vital projects, thereby placing people’s lives in danger just for parochial interest.
“Why should such projects be abandoned just because you don’t like the person in charge. The moment the rains come, the people will suffer the consequences and yet you engage all the energy in waging political wars with little or no benefit to offer the people. Governor Hope Uzodinma should take up the challenge of delivering good governance to the people of Imo and spare them the too many wars”, he stated.
Politics
LP Crisis: Ex-NWC Member Dumps Dumps Abure Faction
Mr Ojukwu, who recently returned to the interim National Working Committee led by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, noted that the party had 34 elected members in the House of Representatives, eight Senators, and 80 members at the state Houses of Assembly after the 2023 general elections.
“Now we lost all of them,” he said. “I don’t think we have as many as five members in the National Assembly.”
The former national officer of the LP talked to journalists in Abuja and said he chose to join the caretaker committee led by Senator Nenadi-Usman because they are now the officially recognized leaders of the Party.
“I chose to work with the caretaker committee to help save the Labour Party, for the benefit of the party. I also want to use this chance to ask my colleagues at the national, state, and local government levels to come together and help rebuild our party.
“Another election is around the corner. We lost everything we have. They have left to other political parties. So I’ll reach out to all my friends in the other group to get together and work on making this party stronger again.
“The caretaker committee has formed a reconciliation committee. Let’s come together and talk so that we can restore the first opposition political party in Nigeria.”
Mr Ojukwu, who was part of the Julius Abure’s group, said there are no more factions in the LP.
He added, “There is a court ruling, and since it is valid, the right people are in the correct positions.”
He urged Barr Abure and others to drop the legal cases they have filed because they are not helping the party.
“Litigations are killing political parties”, he said. “They’ve seen many political parties disappear because of legal battles, and the Labor Party is losing support every day, which makes me feel sad.”
Mr Ojukwu said he did not think joining the Senator Nenadi-Usman’s NWC was a betrayal of the Abure group, describing himself as “the oxygen” of that faction.
“I’m with this group because of the verdict. But I never betrayed anybody. Rather, I was betrayed,” he added.
