Deputy Senate President, VON DG differ on Ekweremadu’s stewardship in National Assembly

Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has berated Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu for using the last three years to fight President Muhammadu Buhari, instead of attracting development to his senatorial district.

Addressing All Progressives Congress (APC) delegates in Awgu yesterday, Okechukwu, who is a senatorial aspirant in Enugu West, said rather than give his people quality representation, Ekweremadu was wasting so much time and energy in fighting the President at the Senate.

But in a swift reaction through Uche Anichukwu, his Media Aide, Ekweremadu described Okechukwu as an ‘upcoming propagandist,’ who has no political value to his party and his constituency,” saying his only chance of getting attention was to mention Ekweremadu’s name.

“Ekweremadu has attracted the Nnewe/Oduma/Akaeze roads and bridges, Nkwe/Ezere/Awgunta/Mmaku/Obeagu road to Enugu West senatorial district.“He has also attracted the Udi North Ring Road, which covers Awhum/Egede/Affa and parts of Udi North, electricity and educational projects, scholarships and bursaries to indigent students, facilitated employments, capacity building and empowerment programmes, among others.

“Therefore, it is evident that he (Okechukwu) either refused to appreciate the developmental projects or he is ignorant of them, having been operating from Abuja,” he said.However, Okechukwu said he was disappointed that the Deputy Senate President, who he said, “smuggled his way into becoming the number two person in the Senate, has continued to use his office to undermine Buhari’s administration.”

He lamented that a senior ranking officer of the National Assembly like Ekweremadu chose to make the Senate a battleground, abandoning a vital road such as the Oji-Awgu federal highway, which has become a death trap.“If you are fighting an incumbent President, will you get anything for your people? Instead of behaving like David Mark who even had more senators on his side but said the PDP was not in power, Ekweremadu plunged into the contest for the Senate leadership. And you could see the confusion he had caused in the Senate in the past three years,” Okechukwu said.

He maintained that it would be deceptive to expect Ekweremadu to achieve anything if given another four years, insisting that his scorecard for Enugu West was not commensurate with his 16 years in the Senate. Okechukwu maintained that he was running for the Senate because he was inspired to revamp the abundant coal deposits in Enugu State, among other aspirations.