By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has asked Governor Hope Uzodimma to account for over N206 billion local government funds his Shared Prosperity administration has allegedly misappropriated.

Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Mr Collins Opurozor, handed down the task at a World Press Conference in Owerri on Saturday christened “On Governor Hope Uzodimma’s Latest Campaign of Lies and Deceit”.

According to him, “Senator Uzodimma must, without any further delay, tell the people the whereabouts of the N206 billion he has received belonging to the Local Governments.”

Opurozor further alleged that, the local government system, which is a mechanism put in place by law to expand and sustain the democratic space and to spread democratic values, has been destroyed in the state by the APC-led government.

“This is a huge tragedy! Imo is a state that has over seventy percent of her entire population living in the rural areas. Yet, the only channel through which governance can be delivered to the people has been completely run aground,” Opurozor said.

He lamented that something unusual has started to happen in Imo State since the previous week, accusing the State Government of embarking on a campaign of misinformation, lies and deceit as probably part of their strategies to win the scheduled INEC governorship election on Saturday, November 11, 2023.

The Imo PDP Spokesperson also accused Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon. Declan Emelumba, of dishing out falsehood that Imo State chapter of PDP had allegedly concluded plans to organise a protest in Abuja over the festering insecurity in the State.

“As if that was not enough, the same Commissioner visited a local radio station in Owerri to blame the opposition for the indefensible failure of the Uzodinma-led government to fulfill the primary purpose of political governance, which is the security of lives and property.

“At last, the Governor, Senator Uzodimma, was on national television Channels to advance such false narratives. It, therefore, becomes necessary that we respond to the issues.

“Senator Uzodimma said he met Imo in a cemetery when he became Governor in 2020. But the truth is that Imo State was a paradise before his coming. Charmed by the glory he saw, Senator Uzodimma, while taking his oath of office, vowed to continue with all the lofty initiatives of the past PDP administration.

“Unfortunately, he has now plunged the State into a cemetery. A state that knew no violence is now a city of blood and valley of death.

“More than half of Imo territory is presently under the occupation of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other non-state actors who levy death upon Imo people day after day. Farmers have abandoned their farmlands and the logical outcome has been unprecedented rise in poverty and starvation, including crime,” Opurozor said.

“Equity,” according to the Imo PDP Spokesperson, “demands that Senator Uzodimma should not present himself as a candidate in the forthcoming governorship election, since he hails from Orlu Senatorial Zone that has held power for 20 years in the last twenty-four years. Those backing his inordinate ambition do not mean well for the State, and they must stop forthwith.”

He pointed out that Imo State stood above national average in all the indicators of social well-being before governance of Shared Prosperity came on board and allegedly put the state in the top positions in all the indices of social misery.

The Imo State PDP chief image maker, furthermore, accused the APC (All Progressives Congress) government in the state of making incessant borrowings a state policy, which he insisted to have put the state into irredeemable debt slavery.

His words: “Make no mistakes, debt instruments are supposed to be development tools which governments deploy for raising the financial and socio-economic well-being of their citizens. The implication is that loans are invariably obtained so as to invest in those programs, initiatives and projects which have the prospect of turning around the economic circumstances of the borrowing entities and affords them the capacity not just to repay in future but also to create sustainable growth.

“Fact to be noted is that Imo is presently the most indebted Igbo state, with a debt profile which stands at N240 billion. That means that the regime of Senator Uzodimma has doubled the debt profile in the last three years. And the fundamental question is: “What has the regime done with over N130 billion it has borrowed so far?” he queried.

Opurozor insisted that in all of the landmark borrowings by Shared Prosperity government no effort has been made to redraw the industrial landscape of the state by re-jigging investments in the hugely vital agro-industrial sector where Imo has major comparative advantage. He expressed disenchantment that Adapalm has remained moribund, Imo Rubber Estates and Avutu Poultry Farm have remained comatose.

“Equally, Nsu Tiles Company, Umuna Bricks Factory, Egbema Power Plant and Inyishi Aluminum Extrusion Plant are some key investments with the capacity to revamp the local economy and employ a vast majority of the teeming unemployed Imo youths. Yet, they have been left to rot away, even when Imo youths under this regime allegedly roam the streets without jobs,” Opurozor said.

He passionately appealed to Imolites to continue to discard every misinformation being allegedly peddled by the APC government reiterating that Imo people must never reinforce failure.

Opurozor further enjoined Imo electorate to come out en-masse and join hands with PDP and participate in the electoral process, with a clear and patriotic objective of stopping Governor Uzodimma’s second term ambition so that PDP could reclaim the state and make it safe again with Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the Governor.

“This is what we owe ourselves for the sake of our collective survival. This is what we owe our generations yet unborn. The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny,” he noted.