A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ehedioha, on Sunday expressed disappointment that Governor Rochas Okorocha’s position in the All Progressives Congress has not yielded any positive dividend for the people of Imo State.
Ihedioha said this in an interview in Abuja.
He explained that the governor’s position as Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum and his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari had not attracted any special federal presence to the state.
The former lawmaker, who contested for governorship of Imo State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015, noted that the APC rode to power using propaganda and that it was still hoping to rely on the same trick to govern.
He said Nigerians were now wiser and cannot be taken for a ride by people who had nothing to offer in terms of governance.
Commenting on the recent defections from the PDP to the APC, Ihedioha said this was expected considering the fact that the PDP was not prepared to lose and that there were members who will only stick around when things were rosy.
The former deputy speaker also said the defections exposed thr members of the PDP who worked against the party’s interests during the 2015 elections.
He said, “In my state, Imo, the people that are being celebrated to have left the PDP were those who worked hard to compromise my election; they were in bed with the APC administration because unfortunately we had lost the presidential election and the governorship election that came two weeks after. The responsibilities that were handed over to them, they had reasons to sabotage them because if you recall, President (Muhammadu) Buhari revisited Imo State on the Wednesday before our election on Saturday and he met with those characters that are known to act in that manner.
“The APC is doing what it should do, propaganda. The propaganda is what will help them to give an impression that they are on the ground.
“For instance, the governor of my state (Imo), would want give the impression that he is attracting people but my people are asking, what benefits have accrued to Imo State through you under the Buhari administration – as close as you are (to the President? We are yet to see any infrastructural development in our state since then.
“I think the APC is doing what it should do, propaganda. The propaganda is what will help them to give an impression that they are on the ground.”
On the crisis in the PDP, the former PDP governorship candidate said the mistake made by some party leaders who foisted Modu Sheriff on the party as national chairman was still haunting the party.
He noted that those who promoted Sheriff had little sense of history because Sheriff’s antecedents should have guided them into making better informed choices about the issue.
Responding, Okorocha’s spokesman, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, told one of our correspondents over the telephone, that Ihedioha did not bring any development to Imo State in his years as a member of the House of Representatives.
He said, “Ihedioha cannot criticise Owelle Okorocha; this (Ihedioha) is a man who was in the House of Representatives for many years with nothing to show for it.
He was in power with PDP for several years and they did not achieve anything – they could not even tar a single road, he can’t criticise Owelle, who has over 2,000 ongoing projects.
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