By Chinelo Obogo and Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has been challenged by his opponents to account for the Local Government funds accrued to the state from the federation account.
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Tony Nwoye, threw the challenge during a dinner held in his honour in Lagos at the weekend where he criticised Obiano for failing to conduct LG elections for over three years.
He also questioned what the governor has done with the funds meant for LGs which has accrued to the state throughout his first tenure, just as he challenged him to give account of how he expended the funds left behind by his predecessor, the Paris Club funds and the loan of N15 billion which he collected.
“Obiano receives councils funds of more than N20 billion from the federal government; he has also received the Paris Club funds of more than N13 billion, yet he gave communities only N20 million each.
“If the councils are supposed to receive over 100 million a month, multiply it by 12 calendar months and you will know how much each Council is supposed to get. For the past three years, he has not conducted Council elections, and he does not give the councils up to 20 percent of their monthly allocations.
“For instance, in a council like Njikoka where you have Enugu-Ukwu, Nimo, Agulu, Abagana and Nawfia, and the governor gives a big town like Enugu-Ukwu N20 million, where then is the money that Enugu-Ukwu is supposed to get from Local Government funds, and I’m not even talking about the state funds.
“Obi swore to an affidavit at the Supreme Court detailing the amount that he left for Obiano and I have the documents to prove. Could Obi have sworn to a false affidavit which can land him in jail? Obiano has squandered the money and now he is claiming that he is giving N20 million to each community which is not up to three percent of the amount that they should ordinarily be getting.
“He keeps signing Memorandum of Understanding and says he wants to build an airport in Umuleri while the hospital close to his hometown is in disrepair. My vision is to liberate my people from the bondage in which this administration has put them,” Nwoye said.
He also said that one of the reasons he is contesting was to challenge the marginalisation of the South -East and ensure that the state gets what is rightfully theirs.
“It is a fact that the South- East has been marginalised but I am here to change all that because I don’t believe that because the Igbo did not vote for APC in 2015 therefore they should be punished. If I become governor, I will ensure that what belongs to us will come to us. I will ensure that some of the federal government policies that affect the Igbo negatively are reversed,” Nwoye said.
Meanwhile, the governorship campaign of Nwoye received a boost, at the weekend as prominent supporters of the aggrieved governorship aspirants, Senator Andy Uba and those of Chief Johnbosco Onukwu, joined his team.
Their joining the Nwoye and APC campaign team followed a joint meeting convened by Chief Onukwu for the supporters at Umuchu Civic Centre Umuchu, in Aguata council of the state to bring back all the aggrieved members of the party to the fold.
Onukwu, said he would head the reconciliatory meeting throughout the communities that makeup the Anambra South Senatorial Distract until the APC candidate emerged victorious on November 18, 2017.
No roadblocks on election day –FG
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
The federal government has said there would not be roadblocks in Anambra State and outside of it, before and during the November 18 governorship election in the state.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this on Monday, at the opening session of a workshop organised in Abuja by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum secretariat for media handlers of state chief executives.
The minister noted that the media handlers were working at a very critical period in the nation’s history; with tight budget occasioned by economic crunch and the burgeoning trend of fake news.
Mohammed said “first, they created unnecessary panic in the society by claiming that Monkey Pox resulted from the federal government’s deliberate injection of people with the virus in certain states.
“We had hardly dispelled that when they claimed that the military, which is going beyond the call of duty to support the civilian populace, has been injecting school children with Monkey Pox, forcing many parents across a number of states to withdraw their children from school for days. Imagine the implication of this on the affected children’s education and health. “Now, the disinformation is that ahead of the forthcoming election in Anambra, the government has been providing IPOB uniform to some people to cause mayhem, so they can in turn blame IPOB, and that many roads leading to Anambra will be closed before and after the elections, hence they advised Anambra residents to stay at home and not come out for the election. This is all disinformation, pure and simple. There is no such plan.”
‘1.324m people sign up for Obiano’s continuity’
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
A Socio-Political Organisation, Anambra Transformation Ambassador (ATA) has said that 1. 324 million people have signed up for endorsement of Governor Willie Obiano’s reelection ahead of the November 18 governorship election in the state.
The coordinator of ATA, Dr. Chinedu Enemuo who disclosed this during a press briefing on Monday in Awka said that their target was to get up to 2 million voters that would sign the endorsement form for Obiano’s continuity which the group was championing for good governance under the ‘Bringbackwillie 2017’ project.
He said that the group has three Zonal Coordinators, 21 Local Government Area coordinators, 326 ward coordinators and 4608 polling unit facilitators across the state who were mobilising support and voters for Obiano reelection.
According to Enemuo, “Anambra Transformation Ambassador have taken the train of good governance to different communities across the state like some remote areas, Umuoba Anam, Nzam, mpiata in Anambra East, Akiri Ogidi, Atani in Ogbaru, Ekwulobia, Uga, Aguluezechukwu in Aguata”.
In his remarks, the Anambra South Coordinator of ATA Mr. Francis Nwosu appealed to the electorate to come out en masse to cast their votes for Obiano and as well stand to protect their votes, stressing that it would be difficult to rig the election with the facility the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was providing.
APDA vows to eradicate poverty
From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Governorship candidate of Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), Mrs Adaeze Okafor has said she would replicate in threefold, if elected executive governor of Anambra State her long time empowerment initiative, which she has been doing for Anambra people long before she started nursing the ambition of governing the state.
Mrs. Okafor, an architect, said she had invested in human and material resources in the state and was set to transform the state and bring it to the next level of development where it would be envy of other states.
The APDA candidate said her ambition was driven by the past experience of ineffectiveness, inefficiency and purposeless leadership style of successive administrations in the state, adding that the older generation of leaders in the state had failed the state and it was time for the new generation to take the bull by the horn and move the state forward.
“Because I have invested in people over the years, now it is the time for me to transform the state, Anambra people and residents will witness their greatest period of human dignity, security and growth in all directions,” she said.
Association counsels youths against thuggery, violence
Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The National Association of Nigerian Seadogs (NAS), Anambra State Chapter yesterday called on Nigerian youths especially those in the state to be more politically responsible by rejecting to be tools of violence in the hands of the political class.
NAS made the call during the Citizens Summit held by the Honduras Deck in Awka with the theme, “Electioneering, Hate Speech, Thuggery and Youth in Building a Better Anambra State.”
In a keynote address, Dr Chike Okoye of English Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, lamented that youths have become social media tigers pandering lies and propaganda instead of setting agenda for the next political dispensation in Anambra State.
He stressed that if youths failed to assume a more responsible role during electioneering, they would suffer more if bad leaders emerged hence the need for them to be politically responsible.
Okoye further charged the youth to use information channels such as social media to mobilize and galvanize themselves for the purpose of putting leaders to task and not hate speech, thuggery and negative electioneering.
Also speaking on the occasion, National Secretary of NAS, Prof Alex Asigbo of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University noted that the issue of negative politicking and social media thuggery was assuming a dangerous trend that needed to be addressed.
He said that the Seadogs were worried with what was happening ahead of the Anambra election and want the youth to take charge of their future by not selling their consciences for money and lacking the moral ground to hold their leaders responsible.