Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has come under the criticism of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following his claims that his administration has built 150 roads across the state.

Ikpeazu had in his broadcast on August 27, to mark the 31st anniversary of the creation of Abia said his government had at the last count built 150 roads that were “strategic” to the economy of the state.

But the chairman of Abia APC, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu in a reaction to Ikpeazu’s broadcast, said the governor awarded himself outlandish marks of performance, arguing that such number of roads could only exist in the imagination of the Abia chief executive.

He said Ikpeazu was only deceiving the people of Abia with tales about the existence of phantom road after subjecting the people to sustained, “years of woes, agony and outright failure through the practice of kleptocracy by successive governments.”

However, the APC chairman commended Abians for their steadfastness and in keeping hope alive for a better tomorrow for us all, our children and children’s children.

According to him, in celebrating their state at 31, “Abians should ideally be celebrating monumental developmental strides given the enormous human and material resources we are endowed with as a people by the Almighty God.

“But in reality and all honesty, Abians are merely celebrating the anniversary of the creation of the state with nothing concrete on the ground to show for the 31 years of existence when compared with other neighboring States and others created the same time.

“The Abia ugly narrative has long become an embarrassment even to the players in the successive administrations since the creation of the State,” Ononogbu lamented.

The chairman of the main opposition party insisted that, “there is actually nothing to celebrate within the developmental indices, suggesting that what this time calls for is sober reflection by all Abians and to ask ourselves pertinent questions.”

He stated that Abians should be interrogating themselves on how their state got to this level of underdevelopment and, “what must be done to reverse the ugly trend” as the 2023 general election keeps drawing near.

“These questions and answers are critical at this crucial point in time to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Abia APC chairman asked Abians, “to cry no more, search no more and look no further because God has heard our cries and prayers by touching credible Abia sons and daughters to take interest in politics.”

He noted that those Abians, who had made it in life and would have ordinarily stayed away from politics, have decided, “to come forward to offer their services and expertise and participate in the state’s electoral process in order to rescue and fevelop Abia State.”

Ononogbu therefore, urged Abians to be optimistic and confident in God Almighty saying that if given the mandate by Abians in 2023, an APC government “will change the narrative positively and lead our people and the State to our collectively desired vision of a New Abia”. (THISDAY)

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