|
|
|
Cross-Fire
Ugwuh, PDP governorship candidate.
 |
The Imo State gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Uche Onyeagocha, responds to a myriad allegations against him, blaming the rival PDP for the falsehood
By Eugenia Okpara, Owerri
The protracted crisis rocking
the ruling People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) over its governorship candidate in Imo State is far from being over as the Action Congress (AC) gubernatorial candidate, Chief Uche Onyeagocha, has accused it of siphoning local government funds for their campaigns.
This is coming on the heels of the judgement by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja that reversed the governorship ticket in favour of the winner of the December 12, 2006 primaries of the party Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.
This scenario has placed both a moral and political burden on the Chief Charles Ugwuh campaign organisation which declared that the allegation of being funded with local government funds were spurious, unfounded and lacked foundation.
Emeka Omeihe, Executive Assistant to Governor Chief Achike Udenwa on Public Affairs, reacting to the allegations told The Source that the insinuations lack merit, as there are no concrete facts to back them, contending that in politics, people employ every means to buttress their claim of being the best candidate.
Onyeagocha had also alleged that the PDP administration in the state has impoverished the local government areas as funds meant for the development and empowerment of the people were being used for the state-wide campaigns of Ugwuh.
Onyeagocha: “It is quite unfortunate that local government funds meant for the development and empowerment of the people have been looted and are currently being used to fund Ugwu’s campaign. The state government is compelling the 27 council chairmen to fund this election instead of encouraging them to leave lasting legacies in the council areas. Imo indigenes should not allow themselves to be deceived again by the PDP which has impoverished the local government councils”.
Onyeagocha, who was reacting to claims that he donated money for the PDP governorship candidate’s campaign said that he had no need to give money to people who presided over the looting of council funds, adding that the purported dinner by Imo PDP was a gimmick to cover the looting.
Explaining why women under the auspices of the AC went on protest to Government House, Owerri where they submitted a petition to the governor, for onward submission to the presidency and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the fiery lawyer said that the aim was to warn that any plan to exclude Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the April polls is an indirect way of extending President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure.
His words: “The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is aware that if the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is excluded from the April presidential election, Action Congress (AC) will go to court and win, which they will resist in order to use it to extend their stay in Aso Rock Villa. Action Congress will do everything legally to counter PDP’s plan to elongate President Obasanjo’s tenure”.
On the report that he has collapsed AC into the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as being used as an agent of the PDP to destabilise his party, Onyeagocha said that the smear campaign was being sponsored by those that failed to get chairmanship ticket of the party, reiterating that the Action Congress is intact and without any faction.
The AC gubernatorial candidate further stated that the April polls are basically between pro-third term agenda and anti-third term individuals, and urged Ugwuh to apologise to Imo people for deceiving them during the tenure elongation saga, in which he favoured the extension of the tenure of the present administration.
The AC candidate urged the electorate to collectively reject all pro-third termers that are out to truncate the growing democracy that Nigerians fought hard to put in place by voting them out.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
