The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Abia State, has lambasted Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu on the first 100 days of his second tenure, accusing his government of celebrating backwardness and obvious failures of its first tenure that include projects abandonment, non-payment of workers emoluments and accumulated pension arrears.
The party in a statement signed by Ebere Uzoukwa, its Publicity Secretary, on Friday afternoon, took the governor to the cleaners as it chronicled some of his failures to include “the abandoned Osisioma Fly-Over, a conduit pipe with which the governor and his surrogates have so far used to siphon about 5 Billion Naira from the treasury of Abia State, the destruction rather than construction of Obikabia-Umuobiakwa-Ururuka Road (the road leading to the governor’s house/village), the invisible Enyimba Economic City, the non-existent Abia Shoe Factory and the destroyed but abandoned Abiriba-Nkporo road.
Also enlisted as Ikpeazu’s sins were, “The 8-Month Salary Arrears owe to Secondary School Teachers, the16-Month Salary Arrears owe to Abia Workers, the 30-Month Arrears owe to Abia Pensioners, Contracts Inflation, Money Laundering and the neglect of the Ukwa East and Ukwa West LGAs as well as the oil-producing communities of Abia State”.
While describing Abia as the least developed state in the country, APGA further described the situation as ‘disheartening’ especially when governors of some neighbouring states in the South-East, particularly Ebonyi and Enugu state are consolidating gainfully numerous achievements recorded during their first term in office.
“It is disheartening that while states in South-East like Ebonyi, Enugu and their governors consolidate on their laudable achievements and progress made during their first tenure on the occasion of first 100 days of their second tenure, Abians are languishing in darkness and backwardness under the visionless PDP government led by Okezie Ikpeazu. There is no gainsaying that Abia is rated the worst state in terms of good governance and the least developed state in Nigeria”.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Information in Abia state, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, had recently lambasted Otti over his continued launch of media onslaught against Ikpeazu-led government, which he (Kalu) claimed was aimed at deceiving gullible Abia people as well as portraying the governor as a non-performing leader.
Kalu who was quoted by the media in a recent interview as insisting that the present administration has improved good living of civil servants, added that majority of the State workers were better remunerated than their counterparts in other states in the South-East zone.
