As fresh plans to conduct the botched Imo North senatorial re-run polls gather momentum, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Athan Achonu, has been cautioned against engaging in deceptive politicking in a bid to hoodwink the Okigwe electorate.
The youths coming under the auspices of Progressive Okigwe Youth Vanguard, in a communique issued at the end of its general meeting held in Okigwe, maintain that it has become necessary to call the PDP candidate to order, owing to what it described as “Achonu’s unbridled penchant to peddle falsehood to garner political sympathy and patronage”.
Coordinator of the group, Comr. Onyedika Ezekwem, noted that Okigwe youths have risen to the challenge of ensuring that only tested and proven leaders with remarkable pedigree would further be entrusted with the collective mandate of the people.
The youth group in the communique, express dismay that Chief Achonu, in his characteristic manner, has been traversing the Imo North senatorial district with the bogus claims that he attracted the ongoing rehabilitation of the Umuahia-Okigwe road, that cut across, Isinweke, Ihitte/Uboma- Ehime Mbano road.
According to them, “it will interest the general public to note that the ongoing road rehabilitation project is being handled by the APC led federal government agency, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA.
“It should further be recalled that the project came to limelight following an SOS message sent to the federal government commission, in 2014 by the All Progressives Congress, APC, led government in the state, which was finally attended to, by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration”.
The group therefore wondered why Chief Athan Achonu would be laying claims to a project that never had his input, with a call on the people of the zone to remain vigilant against desperate antics of failed politicians in the area who adopt desperate measures to deceive and hoodwink them.
Meanwhile, the youth group has drawn the attention of the general public to what it called “yet another round of ploy, orchestrated by Chief Achonu and his supporters, to willfully truncate the mandate of the Okigwe people to freely elect their representative”.
They disclose that the youth vanguard has busted a surreptitious move being made by Achonu, to ensure that the re-run poll did not hold, with an allegation that the PDP candidate recently wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, urging it to defer the election indefinitely till a suit urging the electoral body to declare him winner of the election is determined at an Abuja High Court.
This according to the youths, portends the deceitful and hypocritical antecedents of those calling for further delay of the rerun elections, having given the impression to the public through the electronic media stations that they want the electoral umpire to immediately fix a date for the re-run.
The statement further advises people of Okigwe Zone to look up for another round deceit and lies from those it describes as desperate politicians whom it says are all out to deceive and mortgage the future of Okigwe youths.
It adds that this is yet one of the avalanche of technicalities they have employed to sway the mandate of the Okigwe people.
“This is part of the lies they have come to be known with. First of all, the propaganda about god-fatherism came about into the Okigwe political lexicon simply because those who supported the PDP and its candidate have decided to throw their support for Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, upon seeing the enormous benefits inherent in having the APC senator of Igbo extraction.
“We finally call on our people to, as a matter of necessity, see the antics of Chief Achonu, as a ploy to deceive and thwart the development fortunes of Okigwe zonal people for partisan and other insignificant sentiments”.
Nigeria Newspoint
