LP Guber Candidate, Achono, Deplores Insecurity Impact  in Imo

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

The Labour Party (LP) gubernatorial candidate for the November 11 2023 governorship election in Imo State, Senator Athan Achonu, has expressed concern over the rising insecurity, poverty and socio-economic problems confronting the state amid upcoming elections in the state.

Senator Achonu who represented Imo North Senatorial District in 2015 before he was sacked by the tribunal in the same year, said the fact that these problems were left to linger for too long without being addressed was cause for worry, even as he added that Governor Hope Uzodinma has abandoned the state for Abuja where he now runs the affairs of the state due to the rising spate of insecurity.

He spoke with pressmen when he played host to Imo State indigenes in Abuja at his resident in Maitama at weekend, where he decried the continued collapse of business and investments in the state, which he said were supposed to be nurtured as a development imperative and a route towards community prosperity and enhance livelihood for citizens of the entire South-east egion.

He said for instance, as at the recent count, there were “over a thousand uncollected bodies in the mortuary and then over 900 dead the last time the civil society made that press conference”.

“Look at the latest one in Awka, they burnt houses, killed people.

There is a lot of brutality going on in Imo state, that is why I am running to check all these so it doesn’t continue.

“I want to bring in security to my state because that is where I live, that is where I earn a living. My people don’t go home any longer even the senatorial zone of the incumbent governor, his people don’t go home for fear of the unknown. We have to stop it, his party doesn’t condone violence. President Bola Tinubu doesn’t condone violence even though the Buhari administration couldn’t stop the violence but Tinubu who has ruled Lagos doesn’t condone violence.

“Lagos is not a violent place, there are no terrorists in Lagos. He has overseen the south west through. It’s why you see relative peace there except for a few rivalry areas around Ondo. Tinubu likes development and you can’t have development without security. So, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will have nothing to do with anything that will happen in Imo state. It is also a stand-alone election so the whole of Igbo land will be watching the election.”

“I want to do everything, there is nothing happening in Imo state. I don’t know the arrangement he has with Federal Ministry Works and Finance because the only roads he is building are the federal roads. He has abandoned the entire state roads in Imo. We are looking into the details because the cost is almost double the cost of building such roads and he’s doing this because he will get a refund,” said Achonu who challenged the press to investigate and look at “the cost of building those roads”.

He pointed that people can’t move from one local government to another in the state due to evidently collapsed infrastructure and crime among youths in the state who were not gainfully employed.

His words: “It is now that election is coming, so he (Uzodinma) is busy trying to please the people by paying attention to some key places so he can win votes. The Imo people are not stupid so we welcome it. Let him continue to grade those roads, award the contracts.

“All this things are gimmicks he hasn’t done anything in the state, the rate of unemployment has tripled . People are running away form the state, the IGR has dropped, the pensioners are crying all the time. The state is a mess, all the hotels are folding up because Imo is a tourist destination and people can’t go there anymore. These hotels can’t make money to stay afloat because there are no clients. Hence there are many job losses in the tourism industry.

“Our children are now into drugs, frauds and other vices because of the lack of investment back home in Igbo land. If we have factories they will be gainfully employed. Even all the ESN boys who are being hired to cause mayhem in Imo, if they have good jobs they would not he engaged in all that. They have to feed, they are humans and can’t eat themselves, hence they resort to getting it by other means and the government isn’t giving them that opportunity as existing jobs are even folding up, people are running away with their investments because of insecurity.

“The governor himself doesn’t stay in Imo. He lives in Abuja and runs the state from there,” he added.

Asked what difference would he make if elected governor of the state, he said he would explore the tourism potential of the state which he said was yet untapped or not explore by successful administrations.

“I reasoned that the state is a tourist destination so people will do a lot of shopping activity like they do in Dubai.

“I am looking forward to Diasporas and the investments that will flow into the state through them. I have been interacting with a lot of them and they are eager to come back home and do business. They want a safe place in their homeland where they can bring their investments”, he said.