The people of Akpugo in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State on Thursday came out en masse to celebrate Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi when he visited the area. Gov. Ugwuanyi during one of his routine visits to communities inspected the then deplorable Ogonogoeji-Ndiagu-Akpugo rural road (from Atavu Bailey Bridge to Afor Onovo), and promised to construct the road, regretting that the community had not witnessed any development by the state government in the past, which he fulfilled. Speaking when the governor visited Akpogu, on Thursday, to inaugurate the asphalted 1.9km Ugwuagba-Achikpa-Onicha Agu Road in Ogonogoeji-Ndiaga, the Chairman of Nardo Group, Chief Bernard Edeh, an illustrious son of the community who executed the project, said the governor’s special love for the community, which was evident in pioneering development in the area, spurred him to undertake the road infrastructure in support of his administration’s rural development programme in the state.
According to him, “in the history of Enugu State, there is nobody that can say that a sitting governor has visited Akpugo more than seven times except Gov. Ugwuanyi. “He has been coming and working. I am overwhelmed by the crowd, youths and women that are gathered here. Our governor merits it; our governor deserves it hundred times. “The love you have for us, you won’t regret it. Truly we had governors that ruled this state in the past; Akpugo owes you nothing but it touched your mind to do this (road). “I looked and said that since you can do this for us that I will do the little I can to support you and to show you that we are solidly behind you”.
Chief Edeh told Gov. Ugwuanyi that the pioneer road his administration constructed in the community has attracted development and other good things to the area. In his goodwill message, the former Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo (Rtd.), an indigene of Akpugo, equally extolled Gov Ugwuanyi for his special love for the community, describing him as “a man who is committed to humanity; a man of truth; a man of justice and honesty”.
In his words: “We have had governors in this part of the world prior to his (Ugwuanyi) tenure but it is since he came into office that things started happening in Akpugo.
“Our roads were impassable. Our children in terms of capacity building were nowhere. There was no government presence in the whole of Akpugo before he came in, yet we had leaders who came from this part of the country and nothing happened.