A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Dike Nwankwo has again, raised alarm over the non -improvement of infrastructures in Ukwa land in Abia State.

 

According to him, the people of Ukwa have been annihilated as no presence of Governor Okezie Ikeazu’s administration can be found in the area.

The Chieftain who featured in ‘Focal Point’ an AFTELEVISION programme on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, claimed that ‘Governor Ikpeazu does not believe that there is a people called Ukwa.”

 

Nwankwo had in 2020, raised alarm that the Abia state government,  ASOPADEC and the NDDC has abandoned the Ukwa communities which comprises of Ukwa East and West LGAs.

 

Speaking on infrastructural improvement in his community so far, on ‘Focal Point’ Pastor Nwankwo said;

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“Nothing has been done. It’s regrettable and sad that nothing has been done. Ukwa is not marginalized, Ukwa is annihilated because you can’t find any government presence in Ukwa, both east and west”.

 

He noted that the Obehe- Okikpe road has long been cut off and people can no longer make use of the road to the extent that the Local Government Council can no longer be accessed by workers and visitors.

 

“It became so bad that our brothers from the Ukwa East angle don’t have any road to access their place.

 

“When I said here last time that the governor has not shown that we are part of this government, it looked like you are talking against the governor , but its crystal clear that this governor does not believe that there is a people called Ukwa, he doesn’t believe.”

 

“in 2018, he said Ukwa East and West should provide an alternative road; Obehe -Azumiri is a federal road, that promise since 2018 till today, has not seen the light of the day…. you can’t hear the governor come to Ukwa to commission a project. What you hear the governor do in Ukwa is to harvest a big fish. He has never commissioned a project in Ukwa before”.

 

According to Nwankwo, Governor Ikpeazu only comes to Ukwa if there are people defecting from opposition parties to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

Responding to why it seems he is the only Ukwa man claiming that governor Ikpeazu’s administration has done nothing in his community he said;

 

“I speak the voice of the people; we don’t have road to pass, there is no thoroughfare, everybody knows; even those people you say are not talking, they are not talking probably because they are in government and they feel they want to secure their daily bread , if not why would you not talk?

 

As a matter of fact, it is when you are in government that you have access to the governor then you can make your case but the reverse is the case.”

 

He regretted that even with PDP stakeholders and others visiting the governor, nothing has been done to change the infrastructural story of Ukwa LGAs.

 

According to him, Ikpeazu had promised another group from Ukwa who visited him in Aba, that he will lead a delegation to the minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio but was yet to fulfil his promise.

Nwankwo stated that the governor need not wait for representatives from Ukwa before he gets to meet the minister adding that “Incidentally, the road in question is even used more by people from Akwa Ibom State; “Akwa ibom use that Obehe- Azumiri more.”

 

On why the APC in Abia has not done anything to seek direct help from the federal government being the ruling party;

 

“for me to be talking here means we have been talking, I can’t be interested in talking to the state and not talk to the federal government. But the point here is, there are channels of communication that must be taken very seriously. I don’t hold any office, anybody can classify me as anything, but a governor of a state cannot take up a serious matter to an honourable minister and it will waste away. There must be an attention. We are making this clear so that those who are in the channel of communication in the high level will take it up. We are talking to them as we can.”

 

The Chieftain appealed to governor Ikpeazu to ‘put something down in his name in Ukwa’ before his tenure elapses.