The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has accused the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu of being responsible for the marginalisation of Igbo, stating that the minister is not living up to his expectations in attracting democratic dividends to the party in Ebonyi State.
Okorocha, who is the chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, stated this during a familiarisation visit, where party stakeholders in the state complained that they were being schemed out from the employment and empowerment programmes of the Federal Government and are unable to pay the rent of the party’s secretariat.
Represented by the Deputy Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Ugonna Ozurigbo, he expressed shock that Ebonyi State has a full fledged minister yet the party could not pay N5 million rent.
The Governor admonished party members not to blame President Muhammadu Buhari for sidelining the party, noting that the appointment of Onu into the Federal Executive Council, FEC, was to attract government’s presence to the state.
He said, “The main aim of governance is to help people around you. I am the deputy speaker of Imo State House of Assembly is to help people around me. In the 36 states of the federation, we have 13 major ministers and Ebonyi is one. It is bad that Ebonyi APC has such high profile minister and you are still complaining of marginalisation from the Federal Government.
“Our visit will definitely address these issues. We are here to know your problems and complaints. Ebonyi should join hands and build APC to avoid being a minority in the South East. APC is waxing stronger and stronger,” Okorocha stated.
In an earlier remark, the state chairman of the party, Ben Nwobashi disclosed that the leadership tussle which had factionalised the party has been resolved by the national secretariat of the party, who sent a delegation to register new members in the state.
“We had a team that was sent by the National Secretariat to register new members and the issue of leadership was presented and my humble self is still the chairman of APC in Ebonyi State and my deputy remains Pastor Eze Nwachukwu Eze,” he said.
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