The World Igbo Youth Council (WIYC) has vowed that come 2019, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu will not be returning for a second term as the governor of Abia State.
The group, however, announced its decision to back President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office.
In a communiqué signed by its National PRO Mazi Alex Okemiri and issued after its meeting, the WIYC advised Ikpeazu to resign as Abia governor to avoid being tagged “the face of bad governance and worst governor in Nigeria.”
The youth group listed Ikpeazu’s alleged wrongdoings to include: “non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensions, adding that his ‘Made-in-Aba’ products promotion campaign is a fraud.
The group made scathing allegations of the governor using the ‘Made-in-Aba’ products campaign to feather his own nest as well as those of his cronies.
The group further alleged that: “His Obingwa aides are richer than Abia State, and will be dragged to the EFCC by January, to know how they acquired over half of the choicest properties in Aba and Umuahia.
“Ikpeazu has collapsed all the infrastructure in Abia without constructing any major road in Abia. Rather he is hiding under the Governors’ Forum to demand for Federal government’s intervention on Federal roads in Abia State.”
The WIYC, therefore, said it is in total support of ex-Governor Orji Uzor Kalu’s stand that Ikpeazu will be the first Abia sitting governor to lose his seat to APC or APGA.
“Ikpeazu has been caged by his beer-parlour Ngwa aides, and when he loses election, Obingwa people will stone him; he should emulate Mugabe and resign and hand over to his deputy.”
On Buhari, the group said, “after consultation with Igbo Youth stakeholders, we decided to March to Aso Rock and demand that President Buhari should run for second tenure. We will support Buhari with bloc votes from the South-East.
“Even majority of members of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo have given us their words that President Buhari is more credible than agents of restructuring, that President Buhari has only four years to hand over to an Igbo man in 2023.
“Ndigbo will support Buhari if he rehabilitates all roads in South-East, and remove embargo on importation and support SME businesses.
“The World Igbo Youth Council will officially present the prestigious award to Governor Ikpeazu as the face of bad governance and worst governor on December 10, in Umuahia,” warning that no amount of intimidation will stop them from presenting the award.
“The World Igbo Youth Council will consider President Buhari over other Northerners for Presidency in 2019,” the group declared.