* Says: What you couldn’t do in 17 years, OUK did in four
Abia State governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has accused Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Abia South senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA,) of failing in the assignments his constituents sent him to do at the National Assembly.
Speaking in an interview with a select group of journalists, Ikpeazu who is seeking to replace Abaribe in the Senate, said the latter who has been in the Senate since 2007 has had only two bills unlike former governor Orji Kalu who has had 25 bills and motions in just four-and-half years and Theodore Orji who has had 12 in seven and half years.
Ikpeazu said he is running for the Senate seat to bring his Abia South closer to the federal government as there is no single presence of the federal government in the senatorial district despite Abaribe’s representation in the last 16 years.
He said: “Luckily for me, I’m running this election on my track record and I challenge all those who are running the same election to show their scorecards. Former Governor Orji Uzor-Kalu has had 25 bills and motions in the Senate in four and half years, former Governor Theodore Orji has had 12 to his name in seven and half years, and the man you are talking about (Abaribe) has had only two since 2007 that is for 16 years. You can research and see it.
“In the first place, if a person has the people’s mandate, his intervention, his service, and his stewardship should be obtained from the mandate you were given. The person should not change the mandate. The person should not go to the Nigerian senate and arrogate himself the Public Relations Officer of Ignore people or whatever he calls himself. He was sent there to develop bills, support bills, move motions, and create laws that will benefit the ordinary person from Abia South because we are traders. We are champions in SMEs.
“I give it to him, he has promoted made in Aba in his own way because at times he organizes Trade Fair and all that, but that is not also why he was sent there. He was sent there to craft laws that will give an enabling environment for the traders and the SMEs to thrive. We expect him to speak to the Federal Government to the point where they will provide funds, and machinery and also provide a window for SMEs and trading to flourish. He took the job of Igbo PRO when he discovered that he had failed in the other parameters and needed to adjust.
“As I speak to you, you can’t see a single Federal Government presence in Abia South. The road that leads from Aba to Port Harcourt which is the oxygen valve into the Aba trading community, you can’t go there. Before I became governor, the road to Calabar cannot be accessed and someone is still there talking. Custom officers are still coming to Warehouses in Aba to search and impound goods and somebody is there as a senator talking.
“It takes one month to convey a container from Apapa Wharf to Aba. A trader who borrows money from the bank with interest to pay will have his goods in the Wharf for six months and the interest will keep growing without him making any profit. The dollar would have jumped up and down by then and the man cannot break even. All of these have been happening for 16 years at what point will the change come?” Ikpeazu asked.