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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, has tasked the leaders of Owerri zone to unite and forge a common front to enable them succeed him in 2027 when he would have served out his second term in office.
The governor reiterated his determination to hand over to Owerri Zone at the end of his second tenure in 2027 based on the Imo Charter of Equity and overwhelming support his administration has got from the zone for his re-election.
Governor Uzodimma gave the assurance at the Owerri Zone youth and women endorsement rally held at Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu Square, New Owerri, on Friday.
He reaffirmed that the Imo Charter of Equity is for unity, peace and fairness to all the zones and that he would use his office and political network to implement it.
He urged the zone to unite for peace, to attract local and foreign direct investments to the area, noting, “Unity will bring prosperity, cure poverty, provide jobs that will engage the youths and reduce violence in the zone and Imo State in general.”
He called on the youths to shun violence, vandalism and destructions “because such behaviour will not bring anything good, rather it will bring destruction and stigmatisation to them.”
Furthermore, the governor appealed to Owerri zone leaders, youths and women to tell those sponsoring violence in Imo State to stop and allow peace to reign. “The youths should shun violence and those engaged in it because are not our friends,” he said.
Governor Uzodimma pledged to continue to uphold the Nigerian project “because Nigeria is our heritage and Imo State will not abandon her heritage.”
He pleaded with everyone to unite in order to reap the gains of a bigger Nigeria.
The governor recalled how he met Imo in shambles when he took over office, “devastated and in turmoil” in 2020 before he was able to recover it from the cemetery, “revived it and today the narrative has changed.”
Governor Uzodimma further recalled how he recovered the State Secretariat, reconstructed Owerri Relief Market road in addition to the reconstruction of the three main road corridors leading in and out of Imo State when there was scarcity of funds to do that.
The governor hinted that his administration had reduced the debt profile of the state from N320 billion to N148 billion as well as increased the internally generated revenue (IGR) from N600 million to about N3 billion per month.
The governor said he discovered that the major cause of insecurity and youth restiveness was unemployment hence he decided to create both skilled and unskilled jobs for Imo youths.
He said that the first set of 15,000 unskilled jobs and 20,000 digital skilled jobs through the Cohort 1 and 2 Skill-Up Project have been created.
Also, he said his administration has transformed the health sector by rehabilitating the 305 primary healthcare Centres, acquired mobile health clinics and built three brand-new General hospitals in the oil producing Local Governments of the State.
He decried the reckless way land grabbing has been elevated to a religion. However, he promised that by the end of this month the IGIS will be activated and people’s lands taken away wrongly returned to them.
The governor thanked the people of Owerri zone, especially the youths and women for their enormous support and appreciated them for coming out en mass to show their solidarity to his re-election.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Imo State Chapter, Dr Macdonald Ebere, said: “Governor has done well in all sectors of human endeavours in the state. All local governments in Owerri Zone are standing up in his support because already God is with the governor and nobody will take it away from him.”
The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Chief Henry Njoku (Haritex) told the Governor that all youths and women in Owerri Zone are with him, “especially as they have firm belief in the implementation of the Charter of Equity which will guarantee the zone the governor of Imo State by 2027.”
He pointed out that based on the works of the Governor which Owerri zone has benefitted from a lot of Imo people will remember him when he leaves office in 2027.
