Imo Debt Now N210 Billion – PDP blast Uzodinma

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has called on the citizens of the state to sack the APC-led administration of Senator Hope Uzodinma for reversing the development of the state.

The party made the call through its new Publicity Secretary, Collins Opurozor, during a chat with media practitioners on Friday in Owerri, Imo State capital.

The opposition party said the primary reason for political governance is the security of lives and property.

The party said, ” This is what separates the political state from the state of nature where life is nasty, solitary, poor and short. It is also the irreducible minimum that the 1999 Constitution mandates the government to do.

“Yet, the APC-led regime in the state cannot provide security for Imo people. Bloodbath is now a daily fact of life here in Imo. In view of the festering insecurity in most parts of the Orlu Zone, Imo State now has more internally displaced persons than Borno State.

He said,” To be clear, over eight hundred thousand persons have been displaced in the last two years, and this is larger than the entire populations of the Republics of Malta and Maldives put together.

“Today, Heartland Football Club which was revived by our Party while in power has been destroyed, and now the once glorious club suffers relegation. The 27 mini stadia which we built in the local areas have now been abandoned by this APC regime, even as they cannot account for over N160 billion that has accrued to the local government system.

“Every month, Imo State gets about N800 Million as its share of the 13% Derivation Fund. This government has pocketed a total of N25.6 Billion belonging to the oil-bearing areas without anything to show for it. Life in these communities is a clear example of how people can live in affliction even in the face of affluence. Recently, protesting youths from those communities came into Owerri in their thousands and barricaded the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road in an expression of their frustrations.

“Over 1,000 rural roads which our Rebuild Imo Administration brought under the Rural Access Mobility Projects (RAMP), were terminated by this wobbling regime. The vocational education centres we started were abandoned, and the NEWMAP erosion control projects we brought have been discontinued by them. Gully erosion is now threatening to wipe out very many communities in Imo State. Imo’s debt profile grows every day and has hit N210 billion, a debt burden that is larger than all the other Igbo states put together.

“Imo people should therefore shore up with the reality that the progress of the state now depends on the ouster of this failed APC regime at the polls next year.”