The
crossfire between Anambra State governor, Mr. Willie Obiano and his
predecessor ,Mr. Peter Obi continued on Monday, with the latter accusing
the former of employing diversionary tactic to cover up his
government’s non performance and incompetence...
He said the claim by Obiano that he (Obi)
demanded N7bn from him was not only a fallacy but a claim meant to take
away the attention of Anambra indigenes from the inability of the
administration to deliver on campaign promises.
Obi stated this in a statement issued in Abuja by his media aide, Valentine Obinyem.
The statement is coming a day after
Obiano through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Strategic
Communications, Mr. Oliver Okpala accused the former governor of lying
on the issue of N7bn.
He said “It is shameful for Obi to lie so
openly and play on the intelligence of the people of Anambra State. Why
did Obi not work for the governorship candidate of PDP when he was
handing over despite the fact that Oseloka was his SSG.”
Laughing off Obiano’s allegation, Obi
urged him to come clean and tell the electorate what he did with the
mandate given to him instead of raising spurious claims against him,
stressing that “now is campaign time, rather than tell the people of the
state what he has done for them, he is busy sponsoring people on
different media to say l demanded N7 billion from him, which is entirely
false.” “The statement further read “We know the governor has many
questions to answer and cannot run away from them through blackmail. For
instance, on the issue of the 75 Billion Naira Obi left for him, he
tried to deny it by saying he met ‘near cash’, we went on and published
the banks and account numbers where the money were and the bank
certified statement of accounts, but they tactically kept quiet. To
refresh our minds, Obi left N2,139,951,400 Billion in First Bank
(Acc no. 2018779464) for Oko erosion; N4,909,576,925.98 Billion in
Sure-P Diamond account (0026290200); 1,782,568,032 Billion in UBEC 1
Diamond account(0023484282); N2,101,864,766 Billion Ubec 2 Diamond
Account (0031151473); over 4 Billion Naira in many MDG accounts one of
which was the N3,048,355,196 Billion in Fidelity Bank(5030047097); over
35 Billion Naira cash (set aside funds added) in all the banks.
“Obi also left 156 Million Dollars in
Fidelity Bank ($56 Million Dollars); Diamond Bank ($50 Million Dollars);
and Access Bank ($50 Million Dollars).
“If left as Anambra’s Future Growth
Funds as conceived by Obi, the money with interest and accruals would
have been about 200 Billion Naira, but Gov. Obiano has sold all of them.
In fact, it was one of the disagreements about the sale that led Mr.
Oseloka Obaze to resign. Obiano should be busy telling us the status of
these moneys rather than his current blackmail.
“Now is also the time for Obiano to
justify before Anambra people why he takes 1.2 Billion Naira as security
votes, which is the biggest in Nigeria relative to income,” the
statement, added.
Obi further said that what was curious
was that within his first six months in office, he wired all the money
in MDG account, with which schools and hospitals get monetary and
development support to his security vote.
He further contended that the governor
has the time to clear some unsubstantiated claims by his administration
on agricultural programmes -5 Million Dollars ugu export .
“As a seasonal vegetable, at least ugu
would be exported once every year, but now, going to two years, we do
not hear about it again. He recently told us that Anambra got the order
to export 10 million tubers of yam, maybe he did not even realize that
over 80percent of yam consumed in Anambra State come from Benue and
Taraba States. He also said that Anambra is now producing over 200
metric tons of rice, when even Stines company source rice from Ebonyi
State”, Obi, added.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Grand Alliance has described Obi as history in the state.
According to its Deputy National
Chairman(South),Chief Uchenna Okogbuo, he said the former governor is no
longer backing Governor Willie Obiano would not in any way affect the
chances of the incumbent governor at the polls because he is now in the
past.
He said Obiano’s visible achievements are what is going to count for him and not those backing him.
According to him, the problem with Nigerian politicians is that they don’t always know when their time is up.
Okogbuo said Obi
ran a good administration in Anambra State using the manifesto of APGA,
adding that it was still the same manifesto that Governor Willie Obiano
was using to transform the state.
He said government is a continuum and
since Peter Obi has concluded his own race and passed the baton, what is
expected of him is to go home and rest.
But that his being in the campaign trail
after handing over the baton is diminishing his good image. He however
said that Anambra people don’t look backwards and as such there was
nothing that his continuing presence in the governorship field would
achieve for the PDP.
“To be honest with you, there is nothing like the Peter Obi factor in the forth coming governorship election in Anambra State.
The truth is that he is now history. He
is now in the past. This is one thing we want him to realise. He has
done his bit and did it very well so he should go and rest in order to
keep his integrity,” Okogbuo said.
We would not be happy to see people
insulting or calling him names. However, this is what people get when
they fail to realise that their time is up,” the party leader, said.
He said Peter Obi is not the only former
governor of the state, his continued presence in the campaign ground
would make people to begin to think that he is power conscious.
Okogbuo said he has told those who want
to contest against Governor Willie Obiano in the forthcoming
election, no matter who their god fathers are, to make better use of the
money by using it to establish cottage industries in Anambra State
instead of wasting their time and resources campaigning.
He noted that Anambra people are too
enlightened and too sophisticated to change a winning team because of
one former governor or god father.
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