• LG Funds Not Withheld By Govt-Says Imo ALGON
By Ambrose Njoku
While the opposition parties were more relaxed and inactive, Governor Hope Uzodinma was very aggressively mobilsing, galvanizing the people across board in all the nooks and crannies of the state presenting his performance scorecard in serious electioneering campaigns stressing on the Imo Charter of Equity strategy, Imolites embraced him and gave him victory at the November 11, gubernatorial polls, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has said. Imo State Government does not withhold Local Government funds as their monthly allocations are appropriately disbursed by joint Accounts and Allocation Committee, though journalists are not being invited to attend chairman, Association of local Governments added.
Chairman, Association of Local Government (ALGON) Imo state Chapter, Willy TC Okolieogwo stated this in a Post-Election Media Chat held at the Imo ALGON secretariat last Friday. He explained that Local Government allocation of the state are employed in the works, health and Agricultural sectors of the economy.
Flanked by the Imo ALGON secretary, Barr Tony Umezurike, he inform newsmen that the cry of the opposition elements alleging rigging at the polls and other alleged malpractice may be called political distractions. According to him, it has become the stock- in- trade of lossers in any election in our country is to accuse the winner of having won by rigging just as the winner always insists that the INEC declared result is right.
He described as false the opposition parties claim that there was no election in ORSU Local Government Area thus tying his hands to react to a claim in some quarters that the Attorney- General and Commission for Justice, Imo State, Barr. C.O.C Akaolisa’s statement that voters were conveyed to ORSU to cast their votes during the polls. In Onuimo, L.G.A as in other Local Government Area of the state, the ALGON Chairman said, election was peaceful.
Okoliogwo explained that the opposition parties kept their campaigns around the Owerri Municipality thus neglecting the other Local Government Areas of Imo State to their utter failure at the end. “What
was their level of engagement?” with the people during the electioneering campaigns, he queried.
Winning in all the 27 Local Government Areas, Uzodinma’s brilliant delivery of good governance, he said, the people voted for him to enable him continue his good works for the next four years. “This is the first time in Imo a governor is winning back to back” visibly seen in the 205 wards and all the Polling Units in Imo State, he stated.
Fielding questions from journalists, he described Gov. Uzodinma as magnanimous in victory pointing out that he had also been inviting all segments of Imo society to join him serve the good people of Imo State in his second team. “He is a man full of milk human kindness” he said, referring to “his trajectory since assumption of office.” He noted that he has well brought together all others in the political divide to make inputs for good governance in the state. He quoted the governor as saying to his opponents: “Please drop your sword. Join me so that we can develop Imo. Please come and join me develop Imo”, he recalled.
ALGON Chairman assured of Local Government elections soon adding also that local contractors handing 5 kilometer road projects in each of the Local Government Areas is still on-going even as he stated emphatically that, earth-moving equipment deployed for work are intact and not sold out as alleged in so quarters. He also decried the allegation that some SOLADS are not reporting for duty in their various offices as alleged of Orsu and Okigwe LGAs.
Apart from fixing LGA roads in the state come the dry season, he stated that the 3R government has been keen on enhancing Local Government Area Health Centres in the autonomous communities. Accordingly also, government, he said, has been working hard to ensure food security noting that Senator Uzodinma provided free – of -charge trailer loads of fertilizer to farmers in the state in 2022 which no previous state administration had done, he concluded.
