From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The governorship candidate of National Unity Party (NUP), Chief Justin Nnoli-Amaechi, has blamed what he describes as the underdevelopment of the state on poor power supply, promising to build an Independent Power Plants (IPP) to tackle the situation if elected.
Speaking yesterday during the flag-off of his campaign, Nnoli-Amaechi, faulted Nigeria’s dependence on only hydro-power plant, stressing that no state or country would develop with only one source of power.
He stated that the only way Anambra state would boost internally generated revenue was to build an independent power plant, which according to him is the bedrock for economic development.
“Nigeria would continue to import finished products due to the high cost of production in the country as a result of poor supply of power. My government will shift away from waiting for allocations from Abuja to address the problems of my people and the only way to do it is to remove obstacles that are militating against the development of our state’s economy. Poor power supply is one of the major roadblocks,” Nnoli-Amaechi.
Pledging transparency, fairness and justice in his administration if elected, the NUP candidate said voting out the incumbent government in the state would be a major relief for the people of the state and democracy.
Assuring state workers and pensioners that their welfare would be priority in his agenda, he noted that no government would get effective services from workers when they were poorly treated.
He also advised Anambra youths against being used as political thugs during the election, noting that some overzealous politicians with negative motives to defraud the state, sees the contest as a do or die affair, and are out to engage youths as thugs and as well out to commit billions of naira to induce voters.
He said, “Most frightening and regrettable is the speed in which some political leaders sacrifice moral probity and financial decency to the whims and caprices of corruption, bad governance and befuddled vision.
“It is shameful and disheartening to see a state like Anambra so abundantly blessed with both human and natural resources reeling under such a humiliating level of want, deprivation, and excruciating poverty.”
APGA group dumps Obiano for Obaze
From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
A political pressure group within the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), APGA Ambassadors, who worked for the election of Governor Willie Obiano in 2014 has dumped the incumbent Governor and endorsed the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Oseloka Obaze.
In a rally held in Awka by the group, the Co-coordinator, Ikechukwu Ejesieme, said the group’s decision to dump Obiano was because he ‘failed on the promises he made to the people of Anambra state and has resorted to empty talk, deceit and propaganda.”
He also said the group, after a painstaking analysis, settled for Obaze because “he possesses the right skill set, temperance, exposure, experience and contact needed to move the state forward.”
“It’s painful to admit, but APGA is no longer the party the founders envisioned it to be. Our mantra is ‘be your brother’s keeper’ but every index you look at points to the glaring fact that we have since abandoned that mantra. Our decline in education, crumbling infrastructure, abandoned social investment programmes, lopsided government appointments, inequitable distribution of the state’s resources, non-conduct of Local Government elections and the government’s resort to brazen lies has made it extremely difficult for any honest person to campaign for the party’s candidate.
“In 2013 after the primary election, we knocked on doors, went from home to home, marketplaces, street corners, political and apolitical gatherings and used every medium available to us to convince people to vote for Obiano. Today, how do we go back to the same people knowing that Obiano has failed and still ask them to re-elect him? We owe it to ourselves, as the people that brought in this governor, to remove him and replace him with another,” Ejesieme said.
While thanking members of the group who cuts across the 326 wards of the state for their support, Obaze said, “the government of the day beyond being financially reckless is deceitful.” According to him the government runs on lies and propaganda.
He argued that there is nothing on ground to justify the government’s claim of $5 million export of vegetables. He also contested the figure bandied by the government as the quantity of rice the state produces, saying that such claims are false.
He regretted that a government elected to continue on the good governance trajectory Anambra State once rode on derailed and now tries to make up with lies and window dressing. He asked the government to come clean on its claims, make open the details of its budget, tell Anambra people how much it has borrowed, and account for the resources it has so far spent on behalf of the people.
The PDP candidate said his government, if elected, will treat governance as it should be. According to him, zero based budgeting method, participatory budget and full disclosure of budget details will be a constant. He said government dealings ought not to be shrouded in secrecy as it currently is in Anambra state.
Your oppression’ll end if I’m elected, Nwoye tells Igala community
By Chinelo Obogo
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Tony Nwoye has assured the Igala community in the state that their suffering will end if he wins the forthcoming governorship election.
Nwoye gave this assurance at Uzam, partly occupied by indigenous Igala during his campaign visit to coastal areas of Anambra West Local Government Are
a . Another meeting with other Igala speaking natives was scheduled to hold at Umueze Anam.
Nwoye who won election to represent the area in the House of Representatives received commendations on his representation during the occasion.
A statement by campaign spokesman, Nonso Madu, said representatives of the Igala community applauded Nwoye for being the first governorship candidate to visit them and for his past representation of their interests in the National Assembly.
Nwoye who arrived the coastal area by boat said: “I am part of you, I have been your representative and I know what you are passing through. Your own marginalisation under Willie Obiano is special because he does not make any pretence about it. For some other people, he could say that he did this or he did that, but for you, he just acts as if you do not exist.
“But I know you exist and as your representative I have made some effort in bringing some projects here but I assure you that as governor with executive power, your tears will be totally wiped away.”
Why voters should support Obiano, says Egwuoba-Ezekwesili
By Chinelo Obogo
A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Charles Egwuoba-Ezekwesili has called on voters to support Governor Willie Obiano to enable him consolidate on his achievements.
Egwuoba-Ezekwesili, who said the state under Obiano was one of the few still paying workers regularly as well as building roads, bridges, flyovers within its 177 communities added that a second term for the governor would enable him advance development of the state beyond anybody’s imagination.
He lauded Obiano’s “choose-your-project” initiative which he said has touched all the “constituting communities with government’s presence simultaneously, quietly and peacefully”, and urged Anambra electorate to reject other parties and vote Obiano, who he said has been adjudged to be the best performing governor in the country by independent local, international and multinational agencies and organisations. “Security is now guaranteed in all parts of the state. There are no more bank robberies or rampant kidnapping. This has made the state internationally acknowledged by the United Nations as safest among the 36 states in the country.
“More local and foreign investors have been trooping into Anambra since the Obiano security magic began. Others who had closed shops and ran away before his arrival are now back and in business.
“When he said he would fight crime with jobs, many didn’t believe or understand him. Today, with many industries basking in the conducive and secured operational environment, more of our teeming youths have been employed and taken off the streets. This has also brought the number of destitute within our communities to the barest, and he has just spent three and half years,” Egwuoba-Ezekwesili said.
He added that Obiano’s re-election complete the eight-year tenure of the North senatorial zone and pave the way for power to rotate back to the South zone smoothly without rancour.