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One year in office: Uzodinma has nothing but Okorocha’s projects to commission –Onwuemeodo

Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State recently marked one year in office with the commissioning of a series of projects across the state executed by him during the period, Sam Onwuemeodo, who is the special adviser to former Governor Rochas Okorocha, has alleged that some of the projects commissioned by Senator Uzodinma were projects executed by Okorocha while in office.

While Governor Uzodinma claimed the limelight cerebrating his one year in office with the commissioning of some landmark or legacy projects, to the admiration and commendation from some people in the state, however, a number of political actors in the state have claimed otherwise, castigating the governor for what they described as orchestrated lies to hoodwink the people of the state as a number of the projects recently commissioned by him where executed and commissioned during the administration of Okorocha. Onwuemeodo condemned the action of the governor, saying he is misleading the people of the state by commissioning projects which were earlier commissioned by his boss. He urged Uzodinma: ‘‘to stop ‘re-commissioning’ already commissioned projects, which he did not build.’’

He noted that it was a tragedy that after one year in office there is still nothing tangible to show, saying this is the reason Uzodinma had to fall back on ‘re-commissioning’ Okorocha’s projects. Onwuemeodo said that it was understandable that Uzodinma was shopping for projects to present to Imo people as his achievements in office in the last one year. However, “Uzodinma must know that Imo people can neither be swayed nor misled,” he said. He continued: “We appeal to Governor Hope Uzodinma and the government he heads, to stop claiming and commissioning projects which Senator Rochas Okorocha did when he governed the state between May 29, 2011 and May 28, 2019.

“The governor and his media handlers should know the difference between constructing roads and rehabilitating roads.” On-wuemeodo stated that it was an unfortunate situation for a government in power to be laying claims to projects done by any of its predecessors, saying it portrays the government as incompetent and conveys a total lack of capacity on the part of the incumbent governor.

“The most recent and annoying incident was the claiming of Imo Foundation built by Okorocha and commissioned on November 13, 2014, as a project of Uzodinma’s administration,” the SA to Okorocha stated. He added: ‘‘A day before the Imo Foundation claims by the government, they had also claimed that Akachi Road was executed by Uzodinma.

That place was a thick forest but Okorocha cleared it and constructed the Akachi Road and the Akachi Tower. That Uzodinma’s government may have filled one or two potholes on the road does not mean it constructed it. “Okorocha rehabilitated the Yar’adua Road constructed by Chief lkedi Ohakim but he never claimed to have constructed the road because he did some work on it. Okorocha also never claimed to have constructed Akanchawa Road constructed by Achike Udenwa because he did some maintenance works on the road.

“This government had also displayed on social media the ISOPADEC’s headquarters built by Okorocha as Uzodinma’s project. They even went as far as mounting the governor’s portrait on top of the building until we also raised the alarm. This is not good for the government in Imo.”

Onwuemeodo added: “Until Okorocha left office nobody accused us of claiming any projects done either by Udenwa or Ohakim. Government at any level should be exemplary or a model both in words and in actions. You do not claim to have constructed existing roads when all you did was some scanty rehabilitation works. “And for the governor to have renamed lmo Foundation is suspect and absolutely questionable. But whatever is the case, he should not claim to have built a Foundation that had operated for more than six years before he came into office as governor.

Onwuemeodo, however, warned that if Uzodinma administration does not desist from such deceitful and misleading acts, they (Okorocha’s team) may have to go beyond press statements to let the world know that the government in Imo has been claiming Okorocha’s projects.

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