Barely 3 days after the governor of Imo state, senator Hope Uzodinma came back from his long stay in Abuja, he was said to have gone back yesterday after visiting the crisis ridden Oguta LGA on Wednesday to commiserate with the victims of the faceoff.
Izombe, a community in Oguta was last week invaded by troops.As gathered, houses were burnt, lives lost, both on the side of the military and the villagers.
The leading opposition party in Imo State, PDP has severally accused Uzodinma of wasting tax payers money while flying on private Jet at a time pensioners and civil servants are complaining of nonpayment of pension and gratuity after undertaking several verification exercises.
The party is of the opinion that Uzodinma being the Chief security officer of Imo state and in view of the frightening security situation in Imo, the governor should be around to proffer solution to the alarming security challenges in the state,instead of participating in every function in Aso Rock.
Reacting to governors regular visit to Abuja, the Drector of Imo PDP new media, Collins Opurozor has this to say,”between the time he was brought to Imo State on January 15, 2020 and September 4, 2021, Chief Hope Uzodinma has left Imo 72 times. He has also returned to the State 72 times. And in all the cases, he has done so aboard chartered private jets. This means the Omuma-born chief, without giving a hoot, doles out 20,000 USD, which is about N8.2 million, from public treasury to hire a private jet for a single trip . So, for the 144 times Chief Uzodinma has flown private jets in just 18 months, Imo State has lost a whopping N1.185 billion. This is preposterous!
“That is not all. It is on record that Imo State under Uzodinma spends an average of N2.6 billion monthly as overheads. Travel expenditures, which some call estacode, gulp about 31% of this sum. In 18 months, therefore, N14.5 billion, representing 31% of the total overhead cost of N46.8 billion, has been blown through aimless, meaningless and fruitless tours to Abuja and around Nigeria. Always, these tours are purely for leisure and partisan political goals, with zero impact on the wellbeing of Imo people.
“For an entity like Imo where salaries and pensions have remained unpaid for over one year, a state with a shrinking economic space which has seen more and more people plunged into abject poverty, Uzodinma’s penchant for luxury and unguarded lust for good life in faraway Abuja can never be rationalized. He is now an island of affluence in a sea of affliction.
Continuing, Opurozor averred that Uzodinma is just three months away from his second year in office.”What can Imo people remember him for? The incarcerations? The insecurity and killings? The brutalization of aged, protesting pensioners? The infrastructural dung pit? The educational pigsty? The unemployment miasma? What will Uzodinma’s two solid years be remembered for? Imo has regressed so badly and the regime is bent on stifling all the sectors by frittering away untold resources through completely aimless tours”.
A renowned opinion analyst and political scientist, Dr Fred Amadi who spoke to this reporter on phone yesterday expressed dismay over the governor’s culture of giving directives from Abuja.He opined that most of the functions Uzodinma attends alongside the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhamammdu Buhari are uncalled for as such outings portray the governor as having little or nothing to do with governance in Imo.
Meanwhile, Uzodinma upon arrival to Abuja, yesterday joined Buhari to receive the Deputy governor of Anambra state, Chief Nkem Okeke who has just defected to all Progressive Congress from APGA.
Uzodinma will commenting on his Facebook page regarding his latest visit to Abuja said,”Today, I joined His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari and our party Caretaker Committee Chairman in receiving my brother, Chief Nkem Okeke, the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, as he formally joins the All Progressives Congress (APC) family today.
“Together, we shall continue to reposition our region for better developmental benefits for our common good”.
It will be recalled that the Imo state governor had last week joined Buhari to the National Assembly to present 2021,2022 fiscal year.
