From: David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has said that his relocation to Anambra State was to ensure that the party coasts home to victory come November 18 in the governorship election.
He said his vision was to ensure that UPP sacked the non-performing All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) government.
Chief Okorie said that the UPP had gone round the twenty one council areas of Anambra State which he noted gave him the opportunity to discover that there were despondency and anger all over the communities visited “because of bad governance.”
“It is such an embarrassing thing to see that the APGA I founded, don’t forget I founded that party, could not at any point in time produce a Governor that is sensitive to the yearnings of the people.
“There is no single place we went that there is any evidence of visible governance. We had to pose questions to people visited as to what the Obiano administration had done for them, the answer remained a resounding ‘nothing’, absolutely nothing.
“All he has been publishing in the newspapers and announcing in the electronic media are lies. I do not know why a State Governor, especially in Anambra State where you have political gurus, will be dishing out such blatant lies to the public by saying he has attracted investments worth of several billions of dollars while there is nothing to show for it, not even a small cottage industry. You go ahead to say you are now exporting yams whereas there is not enough yam to eat in the State not to talk of exporting to other countries. The same lies go for vegetable export and other false claims,” Chekwas argued.
He noted that not only that Obiano had not done enough but he had done nothing at all. He said if the Governor had not done anything in his first tenure, that the second tenure he is seeking would be a disaster.
“And it is because he had done nothing that makes him resort to perfidious use of late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s portrait to campaign. That is what you have seen in every nook and cranny of Anambra State. One begins to wonder whether Ojukwu has resurrected to contest an election. You only discover that someone who has achieved virtually nothing is using the portrait of a great leader for cheap political goal. It won’t work, ” Chief Chekwas submitted. He said that other ethnic groups never used names of their great leaders in vain.
He assured that the UPP’s victory would be the best thing that would happen to Anambra State and Ndigbo, generally.
Chief Okorie explained that the UPP government in Anambra with Osita Chidoka would revisit the issue of self determination, referendum, unconditional release of prisoners of conscience, devolution of powers, among other things as contained in the party manifesto and resolutions of the 2014 national conference. He noted that these were things that resonated not just in the Anambra State but in the entire South East.
Chief Chekwas said there was a lot to be attached to the election and once the UPP won, a movement would be triggered off with the attendant political equation.