The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, on Tuesday, in Umuahia urged the Abia State government to allow people to express their opinion.
Speaking in Umuahia while commissioning a Children’s Specialist Hospital, the PDP national boss said “Thank God that we must continue with this democratic journey which enables us to talk to the governor and Abians to always put heads together and solve their problems.
Speaking in Umuahia while commissioning a Children’s Specialist Hospital, the PDP national boss explained, “When the governor called me last week to come and commission some projects, I received a lot of letters. Some of them threatened that if I come to Abia, I will not come out alive and that I was coming to endorse a particular governorship candidate.”
This advice was following a protest by Abia North Youth Assembly during the occasion on the need to zone the governorship position to Abia North.
Sen. Ayu advised “in a democracy, people must be allowed to express themselves how they feel.
He used the opportunity to explain to Abians that he was not in the state to endorse any governorship candidate.
He explained “Let me make it clear to all of you, at the national level, we don’t endorse candidates. It is left to Abia people to sit down and discuss their problems. But that problem is our problem because we want Abia to remain a PDP-controlled state. So, you must discuss and solve it in a way that will not lose the elected in Abia State.
According to him, “When we elect governors in the platform of PDP, we enjoin them to do specific things, to give a dividend of democracy to the people” and expressed his happiness that he was invited “by the governor of Abia to do two things, hospital and commission roads. That is what we want to see from our leaders, “unlike the other party that their governors leave the state and go and sit in Abuja playing politics.
He further advised, “Our governors must live with their people and provide the dividend of democracy” and commended the governor over the project.
Earlier in his speech, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State said the hospital is purely and entirely a government business. We have a government that listens to the people.
He said the project is the last appendage of our healthcare delivery plan and my challenge is that by the time I leave office, the life expectancy in Abia will be higher than the national average hence it is time to build a dedicated hospital for our children up to 18 years.
He said the resources are by the state government but the technical support is expected from those in the diaspora.
He said it is his responsibility to give every Abian the chance to live and that government will continue to support the hospital to ensure that “no mother and child is turned away on account of money” and urged mothers to key in and give their children opportunity to live.
Executive Secretary, Abia State Diaspora Commission, Dr Ngozi Erondu, Consultant, Annamaria Jackson, Dr Edith Ugbaja and Commissioner for Health, Prof. Joe Osuji said the hospital is the first and only one in the state built for the needs of children in the state and named after a consultant outside the country, Annemarie Jackson.
The PDP national boss later commissioned Aba road, Umuahia build to taste by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
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