The Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has criticized the government for expending tax payers’ money on worthless venture in the bid to lift its sagging political image.
The State’s Chairman of APGA, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, voiced the party’s opposition to alleged plans by the government to further pauperize Abia traders by forcing them to abandon their businesses and embark on a fruitless rally to glorify ineptitude.
APGA’s position on the matter was captured in Rev Ehiemere’s statement here under:
“We have heard about a proposed one million trader march in Abia State which is being bank-rolled by the Abia State government. We would have kept mute on the myriads of irresponsibility of the PDP controlled Abia State government but we cannot because of the continuous madness of the state government. The purported one million traders’ march are jobless youths from Ebonyi, Imo, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom State, so is false.
“The Abia State government is fulfilling the agenda of a political party that has no vision or interest of Abians at heart. Abia State a bandit-state that has tittered to a failed state!
“Unfortunately, the residents of Abia State who are being milked daily for one form of forced state function or another are complaining bitterly for whom we really represent and imprisoned their destiny for over 19 years; dividing Abia State resources amongst themselves while hundreds of thousands of Abians are perishing in poverty. The new vogue of endorsement and the planned one million march by traders in Aba is another form of economic waste, siphony and visionlessness of the present Abia State government. Forcing traders to abandon their businesses is the highest form of wickedness and no other name! An unfortunate tradition handed down from previous administration in Abia State and continued by the current kleptocrats is currently toeing the line.
“In our present circumstances, the failure of Abia State primarily lies in the lack or absence of any vision. A governor who accepts whatever suggestion that comes to his table is a clear indication of VISIONLESSNESS. The other day it was forcing butchers in Aba to buy polythene bags daily and today traders are being forced to abandon their wares for a march that is not from their hearts, without minding the economic loss they will incur and the revenue loss to the state. Traders from our neighbouring states will be disappointed to see our markets gates under lock and key in the place of a forced march for a governor who has not paid workers salaries for almost a year now; has claimed federal projects in the state as done by him and has killed education.
“Abians are tired of deception in the state and are filled with revulsion and indignant of such politics of alienation, the politics of the jungle typical of our current ilk kleptocrats who have looted their way into positions of domination. There is no sincerity in the million-man march. There is no political consciousness. It will not revive industry or bring food on the table of teachers, civil servants and pensioners. They should, instead, find out from Anambra the formula they use to pay salaries on the 24th of every month. The million trader march will not improve the poorly maintained roads in Abia State; the neglect of schools and hospitals in Abia state. It is a ploy by the political jobbers to lull the Governor into a false sense of acceptance
“The crises we have in Abia State are not isolated from our crises of neglectfulness. These go to confirm Abians need for a Leader who think beyond self or clan royalty; a leader who does not think in this perverted and destructive mindset; a leader who does not politicize any movement for mere political power; a leader who thinks of Abia State with selfless love and devotion, a leader who is a chief servant of the people, a leader who can offer us something to hope for, something to believe in – a shared contemporaneity.
“That is where APGA as a party differs. There are pensioners, old men and women roaming the streets of Abia state due to harsh economic conditions Traders in Aba know that the PDP government in Abia state has failed and our happiness is that it is the same traders who would vote out the governor for his poor performance and milking them dry through multiple levies and forceful contribution to support the purported million march in Abia State
“Positive enough the march will raise awareness about the ruthlessness and hopelessness of the state government. Abia traders are advised to distance themselves from proposed march because no reasonable and patriotic Abia man or woman would come out for a march in support of the state government that has not achieved anything for 3 years.
“Abia traders are aware that the governors made in Aba products promotion campaign is a fraud and has not constructed any major road in Abia, rather it is the Federal government intervention in Federal roads in Abia that has rehabilitated Faulks Road and currently working on Port Harcourt Road and Ikot Ekpene Road.
“We know that traders in Abia have vowed to stop the re-election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in 2019, because he has continued to suffer workers and pensioners of the State by owing them months of arrears of their entitlements.
“We want to see every eligible resident of Abia State participate in electoral processes during the forthcoming general elections as we will continue to mobilize trader to get their permanent voters’ cards to ensure that Okezie Ikpeazu is voted out in 2019.”