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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Anambra State of Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, and the Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, have vowed to dislodge Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11 and replace him with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
They spoke in Owerri, yesterday, during flag off of the Imo governorship campaign of Tony Ejiogu.
The duo also admonished the people of the state to ensure they guide their votes from the polling units to the collation centres to ensure they are not stolen by the APC who they alleged were specialists in electoral fraud.
They said it was time to end insecurity and bad governance in the state even as they noted that Imo remains an APGA state and it was time to return it to APGA.
“We are not campaigning in Imo because we have been winning in Imo. So, there is a need for us to come together and protect our votes. We must go back and take back our land. We have done it before. We will repeat it. We will commence enlightenment of our people that it is time again to do what we have done before. The way we did it in Anambra. You saw what happened in Abia State. We will do it in Imo State,” Governor Soludo, who was represented by his deputy, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, stated.
Senator Abaribe said APGA would chase away Governor Uzodimma from Abia.
“It is not only voting. After voting, follow your vote and ensure they are counted and protect them. Follow them from the polling unit to the ward, LGA, and finally the state headquarters of INEC. I beg Imo people to come together and sack APC, vote APGA, vote for the governorship candidate of APGA to bring good governance in Imo State.”
Also addressing party faithful, National Chairman of APGA, Sylvester Okenwa, said: “Imo State is the home of APGA. In 1999, APGA won Imo through Ezekiel Izuogu, 2007, Martins Agbaso won, but their mandates were stolen. Again, we won in 2011 with Rochas Okorocha. But he went away with our mandate to an unknown destination. Now, a well-bred man has come in the person of Tony Ejiogu. He has come to liberate Imo people from bondage. A disciplined man. It is not enough to come out and vote. We must protect it. Failure to do that, they will steal our votes.”
Ejiogu said if elected, his first charge in his rebuilding agenda is to make Imo communities liveable again.
“From August 2020 to July 2023, our dear Imo State has experienced 209 violent attacks. No fewer than 289 people have lost their lives in those attacks while about 100 people have been kidnapped and mostly unaccounted for subsequently.
“These are not just numbers. They are our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, cousins and uncles. Who among you today still sleeps with both eyes closed? Who among you today will invite your friends from across the Niger to Imo for your children’s traditional marriage ceremony? These simple gestures that define us are now being threatened by the forces of evil.
“My priority is to restore security to our dear state so that we may once again enjoy the simple pleasures of life and feel safe while at it. Do we not brag about the quality of our people today, the intellectuals produced by our state? From Sciences to Arts, our people break boundaries and make us proud across the world.
“Imo State has the highest literacy rate at 97 per cent in Nigeria, according to the NBS. The secret to this is that we feed our children well. Let me remind you that we cannot disconnect the intellectual capacity of a child from how well he is fed. Yet, today, we face one of the worst food insecurities in our lands.
“Sadly, even Ohaji Egbema, Ngor Okpala, Mbaise, Oguta, and Ikeduru, all areas known as our food baskets for generations, can no longer produce enough for themselves because of insecurity. Therefore, we shall set out to make food abundant again, by making it safe for farmers to return to their farmlands, harnessing our agricultural potential fully, and making the right investments so that our people can have more than enough to eat,” he said.
