…You’re now history, APGA replies

From Iheanacho Nwosu,Abuja, and Peter Anosike

The crossfire between Anambra State governor, Mr. Willie Obiano and his predecessor ,Mr. Peter Obi continued on Monday, with the latter accusing the former of employing diversionary tactic to cover up his government’s non performance and incompetence.

He said the claim by Obiano that he (Obi) demanded N7bn from him was not only a fallacy but a claim meant to take away the attention of Anambra indigenes from the inability of the administration to deliver on campaign promises.

Obi stated this in a statement issued in Abuja by his media aide, Valentine Obinyem.

The statement is coming a day after Obiano through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Strategic Communications, Mr. Oliver Okpala accused the former governor of lying on the issue of N7bn.

He said “It is shameful for Obi to lie so openly and play on the intelligence of the people of Anambra State. Why did Obi not work for the governorship candidate of PDP when he was handing over despite the fact that Oseloka was his SSG.”

Laughing off Obiano’s allegation, Obi urged him to come clean and tell the electorate what he did with the mandate given to him instead of raising spurious claims against him, stressing that “now is campaign time, rather than tell the people of the state what he has done for them, he is busy sponsoring people on different media to say l demanded N7 billion from him, which is entirely false.” “The statement further read “We know the governor has many questions to answer and cannot run away from them through blackmail. For instance, on the issue of the 75 Billion Naira Obi left for him, he tried to deny it by saying he met ‘near cash’, we went on and published the banks and account numbers where the money were and the bank certified statement of accounts, but they tactically kept quiet. To refresh our minds,  Obi left  N2,139,951,400 Billion  in First Bank  (Acc no. 2018779464) for Oko erosion; N4,909,576,925.98 Billion in Sure-P Diamond account (0026290200);  1,782,568,032 Billion in UBEC 1 Diamond  account(0023484282); N2,101,864,766 Billion Ubec 2 Diamond Account (0031151473); over 4 Billion Naira in many MDG accounts one of which was the N3,048,355,196 Billion  in Fidelity Bank(5030047097); over 35 Billion Naira cash (set aside funds added) in all the banks.

“Obi also left 156 Million Dollars in Fidelity Bank ($56 Million Dollars); Diamond Bank ($50 Million Dollars); and Access Bank ($50 Million  Dollars).

“If  left as Anambra’s Future Growth Funds as conceived by Obi, the money with interest and accruals  would have been about 200 Billion Naira, but Gov. Obiano has sold all of them. In fact, it was one of the disagreements about the sale that led Mr. Oseloka Obaze to resign.  Obiano should be busy telling us the status of these moneys rather than his current blackmail.

“Now is also the time for Obiano to justify before Anambra people why he takes 1.2 Billion Naira as security votes, which is the biggest in Nigeria relative to income,” the statement, added.

Obi further said that what was curious was that within his first six months in office, he wired  all the money in MDG account, with which schools and hospitals get monetary and development support to his security vote.

He further contended that the governor has the time to clear some unsubstantiated claims by his administration on agricultural programmes -5 Million Dollars ugu export .

“As a seasonal vegetable, at least ugu would be exported once every year,  but now, going to two years, we do not hear about it again.  He recently told us that Anambra got the order to export 10 million tubers of yam, maybe he did not even realize that over 80percent of yam consumed in Anambra State come from Benue and Taraba States. He also said that Anambra is now producing over 200 metric tons of rice, when even Stines company source rice from Ebonyi State”, Obi, added.

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Meanwhile,  the  All Progressives Grand Alliance has described  Obi as history in the state.

According to its Deputy National Chairman(South),Chief Uchenna Okogbuo, he said the former governor is no longer backing Governor Willie Obiano would not in any way affect the chances of the incumbent governor at the polls because he is now in the past.

He said Obiano’s  visible achievements are what is going to count for him and not those backing him.

According to him, the problem with Nigerian politicians is that they don’t always know when their time is up.

Okogbuo said  Obi ran a good administration in Anambra State using the manifesto of APGA, adding that it was still the same manifesto that Governor Willie Obiano was using to transform the state.

He said government is a continuum and since Peter Obi has concluded his own race and passed the baton, what is expected of him is to go home and rest.

But that his being in the campaign trail after handing over the baton is diminishing his good image. He however said that Anambra people don’t look backwards and as such there was nothing that his continuing presence in the governorship field would achieve for the PDP.

“To be honest with you, there is nothing like the Peter Obi factor in the forth coming governorship election in Anambra State.

The truth is that he is now history. He is now in the past. This is one thing we want him to realise. He has done his bit and did it very well so he should go and rest in order to keep his integrity,” Okogbuo said.

We would not be happy to see people insulting or calling him names. However, this is what people get when they fail to realise that their time is up,” the party leader, said.

He said Peter Obi is not the only former governor of the state,  his continued presence in the campaign ground would make people to begin to think that he is power conscious.

Okogbuo said he has told those who want  to contest against Governor  Willie Obiano  in the forthcoming  election, no matter who their god fathers are, to make better use of the money by using it to establish cottage industries in Anambra State instead of wasting their time and resources campaigning.

He noted that Anambra people are too enlightened and too  sophisticated to change a winning team because of one former governor or god father.