The All Progressives Grand Alliance yesterday flagged off its governorship campaign in Owerri, with Anambra State governor, Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, vowing that the party will secure victory in the forthcoming governorship election in Imo State.
Governorship candidate of the party, Tony Ejiogu, also said he would rebuild the state from the years of ruins and secure the lives of the people plagued by insecurity.
According to them, it was time to end insecurity and bad governance in Imo State. They also said that Imo remained an APGA state and it was time to return it to the party.
“My first charge in the rebuilding agenda is to make our communities livable again. From August 2020 to July 2023, our dear Imo State has experienced 209 violent attacks. No fewer than 289 people have lost their lives to those attacks, while about 100 people have been kidnapped and mostly unaccounted for subsequently.
“These are not just numbers. They are our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, cousins and uncles. Who among you today still sleeps with both eyes closed? Who among you today will invite your friends from across Nigeria to Imo for your children’s traditional marriage ceremony? These simple gestures that define us are now being threatened by the forces of evil.
“My priority is to restore security to our dear state so that we may once again enjoy the simple pleasures of life and feel safe while at it. Do we not brag about the quality of our people today, the intellectuals produced by our State? From Sciences to Arts, our people break boundaries and make us proud across the world.
“Imo State has the highest literacy rate at 97 percent in Nigeria, according to the NBS. The secret to this is that we feed our children well. Let me remind you that we cannot disconnect the intellectual capacity of a child from how well he is fed.
“Sadly, even Ohaji Egbema, Ngor Okpala, Mbaise, Oguta, and Ikeduru, all areas known as our food baskets for generations, can no longer produce enough for themselves because of insecurity.
“Therefore, we shall set out to make food abundant again, by making it safe for farmers to return to their farmlands, harnessing our agricultural potential fully, and making the right investments so that our people can have more than enough to eat,” Ejiogu said.
Anambra State governor, Soludo, represented by his deputy, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, noted that Imo is an APGA state.
“We are campaigning in Imo because we have been winning in Imo. So, there is a need for us to come together and protect our votes. We must go back and take back our land.
“We have done it before; we will repeat it. We will commence enlightenment of our people that it is time again to do what we have done before; the way we did it in Anambra. You saw what happened in Abia State; we will do it in Imo State,” he said.
Sen Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia South at the Senate, said APGA would sack the APC-led government of Sen Hope Uzodimma in Imo State.
“We chased away that of Abia, we will chase away Governor Hope Uzodimma. It is not only voting; the APGA and Imo people, after voting, follow your vote; let it be counted and protect it. Follow them from the polling unit to the ward, LGA, and finally the state headquarters of INEC. I beg Imo people to come together and sack APC, vote for the governorship candidate of APGA, to bring good governance in Imo State,” he said.
APGA national chairman, Sylvester Okenwa said Imo State is the home of the party.
