From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Ananbra state of governor Dr, Chukwuma Soludo, and the Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has vowed to dislodge Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress, APC,on November 11 2023 ,and replace him with the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
They stated this in Owerri on Thursday during the flagging off the Imo governorship campaign of the APGA, candidate, Tony Ejiogu.
The duo also admonished the people of the state ensure that the guard their votes from the polling units to the collation centres to ensure that their votes are not stolen by the APC who they alleged are specialists in electoral fraud.
According to them, it was time to end insecurity and bad governance in Imo state. They also said that Imo remains an APGA, state and it was time to return it to APGA.
Governor Soludo represented by his deputy, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, stated that; “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.
The Senator representing Abia South, at the Senate, and ex-senate minority leader, Enyinnaya Abariba, “We chased away that of Abia, we will chase away Governor Hope Uzodimma. It is not only voting. The APGA and Imo people after voting follow your vote and and ensure that it is counted, and protect it. Follow them from the polling unit to the ward, LGA, and finally the state headquarters of the INEC. I beg Imo people to come together and sack APC, vote the APGA, governorship candidate of APGA, to bring good governance in Imo state.”
Also addressing party faithful , National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, 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, won in 2011 with Rochas Okorocha. But He went away with our mandate to an unknown destination. Now, 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.”
The governorship candidate of the party, Tony Ejiogu, said among other things ,that; “My first charge in the rebuilding agenda is to make our 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 to 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% 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.