The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Imo State chapter has said that the state has completely collapsed under Governor Hope Uzodimma.
The party described two years of Sen. Hope Uzodimma as years of desperate usurpation, bloodshed, treasury looting, starvation and hopelessness.
In a statement issued on Monday by the State Publicity Secretary, Mazi Emenike Mmeregini, the party described Senator Uzodimma’s government as an illegitimate regime without remorse adding that his administration has abdicated the primary obligation of government as prescribed by the Constitution, which is the security of lives and property.
The state Publicity Secretary accused the administration of Uzodimma of politicizing an unfortunate security situation in the state which has continued to gulp countless innocent lives, every day.
He said: “Today, bandits, terrorists, cannibals, kidnappers and unknown gunmen are almost overrunning the State”.
The party leadership described it as curious that Senator Uzodinma, until now, is yet to refute a very weighty allegation by the Senator representing his own senatorial district Sen. Rochas Okorocha who accused him of being a mastermind of a deadly hit squad that is backed by his administration.
According to the statement, most areas in the Orlu zone are currently under the firm grip of gunmen, a situation that has thousands of our citizens internally displaced.
The party, however, expressed regret that Senator Uzodinma suspended and summarily dismantled all the foundations and programmes which the PDP Rebuild Imo administration painstakingly put in place in all the sectors towards the rebuilding of Imo State.
He said: “our PDP led 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.”
He said that other programmes of the Rebuild Imo Administration were equally 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.
He described it as worrisome given that the regime still cannot point to any landmark project it has done in two years to justify the huge borrowings.
The party PDP pointed out that last year, the regime accessed over N59 billion loans from foreign and domestic sources adding that his year, 2022, Senator Uzodinma has perfected plans to borrow an additional N61 billion.
He said: “when added, 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 also from FAAC, 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”.
According to them within the years under review, Senator Uzodinma has had neither a well-researched policy nor direction in the various sectors of the state describing it as the calamity that has befallen our State.
The PDP however noted with great pain that within two years, Senator Uzodinma has made our state, Imo, the unemployment capital of Nigeria.
He expressed great shock 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.
He said: “Worse still, within two years, our state ranks highest in the South East in terms of infant and maternal mortality rate.”
PDP observed with dismayed that in the past two years, Senator Uzodinma has willfully denied workers and retirees their salaries and pensions adding that when workers stage protests, they are tagged fake and brutalized by agents of the government.
The Party equally observed that the local government system has been completely emasculated, defunded and stripped of autonomy, thus, giving way to mass misery at the grassroots.
While encouraging the people of Imo State to keep the spirit alive, the party leaders insisted that the regime must expire very soon to give way for a PDP led government for the good of the people.
Reacting to the statement, the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy Hon. Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba said that those calling Uzodimma’s government illegitimate may continue to revel in denial, adding that Uzodinma will continue to exercise his power as GOVERNOR of Imo state till the end of his tenure.
He said that the vile propaganda being mounted by PDP will never change the fact and history.
He said that it is unfortunate that two years after Emeka Ihedioha was sacked by the Supreme Court based on facts that he was not the validly elected governor of Imo state, himself, PDP and cheerleaders are yet to come to terms with this simple fact.
He said: “the real usurper of that position is the man who sought to govern Imo with results from three local governments, thus negating the constitutional requirements for victory”
According to him for them to continue to whine over a filched mandate which was recovered by the Supreme Court means that they are the real desperados while describing it as funny at the approach of the anniversary of Hope Uzodinma’s administration, PDP and its agents will rev their disinformation machinery with the aim of deceiving the unwary.
He said: “is it not laughable that the chief security officer of the state is being accused of having a hit squad by a man whose right-hand man has been fingered as the financier of the criminals terrorising the state?”
He accused PDP of being bereft of any modicum of intelligence and decency, adding that these PDP agents are concocting and repeating the same falsehood with the vain hope that lies told severally will turn to truth.
He said that PDP is driven by hatred, bitterness and envy, they have become blind to the tremendous successes recorded by the Uzodinma administration in the last two years.
He said: “What was the debt profile of Imo state when Emperor Okorocha departed in 2019? It was N97b in March 2019. After just seven months of illegal occupation of the Government House by Emeka Ihedioha and PDP, the debt profile ballooned to N164b. The record from the Debt Management Office shows that as of September 2021 under the watch of the Uzodimma administration the debt profile of Imo state was N151b. It has not been rising but reducing. PDP will not tell you that”.
The Commissioner said that It’s pure madness for PDP to bandy unverified statistics that made Imo state the capital of unemployment in Nigeria adding that at any rate, Uzodinma has worked assiduously to empower Imo youths in skills, thus making them employers of labour.
According to him, Governor Uzodimma has taken seriously the welfare of Imo workers at all levels and pensioners unlike in the past when PDP was paying consultants N500million monthly for compilation of padded payroll, Uzodinma is directly paying the workers, including the historic 13th-month salary last December.
He said: “Seeing that their sponsored protests and demonstrations have failed, barefaced lies have become the only available tool for PDP”.
He described it as a height of irresponsibility and crass ignorance for the PDP to accuse the Uzodimma administration of budgetary fraud claiming that two agencies of government had budgetary provisions without evidence of implementation.
He said the party childishly claimed that over 1billlion naira was spent canvassing for foreign loans and that when it came Imo state was not among the three South East States that benefited, What a show of putrid ignorance!
He said that the truth which the PDP is unable to live with is that the Uzodimma government has received grants from the World Bank amounting to millions of dollars for a transparent budgetary system under the name States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme.
He said that it is a World Bank project and Imo state has benefited for two consecutive years now, that is, under Uzodimma’s watch which did not happen under Ihedioha.
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