Uzodinma’s claims on his 100 days in office are false, says Ihedioha

Imo workers bemoan three months unpaid salaries

Immediate past governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, has declared that his successor, Governor Hope Uzodinma, lied to Imo people as regards certain claims he made while commemorating his 100 days in office last week.

He described certain issues Uzodinma raised in his Monday, April 27, 2020, state broadcast to commemorate his administration’s 100 days in office, as “lamentably tinged with implicit and explicit fallacies, misconceptions and deceits.”

Ihedioha noted that such issues were aimed at either usurping or refuting the uncommon accomplishments and footprints of the short-lived Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government and Rebuild Imo Administration, which he (Ihedioha) headed.

A statement issued yesterday by Secretary to the State Government (SSG) in the last administration, Uche Onyeagucha, said, “the Rebuild Imo Team and majority of Imo people viewed this development with worry and resentment thereby necessitating this response to set the records straight and ensure that the truth prevails.”

The statement described Uzodinma’s claim that he inherited an empty treasury when he assumed office on January 15, 2020, as “obsessive falsehood and inconsistent with comments credited to him on resumption of duty.”

“In his maiden broadcast, Uzodinma promised Imo people that he would continue with the governance structure, roadmap and foundation laid by Ihedioha’s government.

“Consequently, he has been struggling to clone Ihedioha’s vision. Moreover, in the same speech on his 100 days in office, he restated his assurance to continue with the 25 roads projects commenced by Ihedioha’s administration.

“In this realisation, it is illogical to claim that he inherited a sorry state of affairs. Besides, it is on record that Ihedioha’s administration was appraised as the best overall performing state in ICT Development by the National Council on Digital Economy,” Onyeagucha stated.

He faulted Uzodinma’s assertion that his administration raised the state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from N600m to N1.2b, saying the claim amounted to flagrant misrepresentation of a well-documented income data of a state.

“The truth is that the Ihedioha administration, at inception on May 29, 2019 met the IGR at N250m and raised it to N1.187b as at December 31, 2019. “Ihedioha stated this in his January 1, 2020 State Broadcast on paragraph 2.7 that the IGR had risen to over N1b,” he added.

Relatedly, Imo State workers have urged Governor Uzodimma to pay them their outstanding three months salaries to save them from the hardship and suffering they are currently facing.

Speaking through organised labour during the celebration of this year’s Workers Day in Owerri at the weekend, they said the effects of lockdown in the state occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic had worsened their plight.

They lamented that despite the Governor’s directive for payment of their salaries before the end of every month, they were yet to receive February to April 2020 salaries.

The workers also regretted the state government’s withholding of check-off dues of industrial unions for up to 46 months in some parastatals and agencies. State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Austin Chilakpu, in his address, disclosed that workers in 19 parastatals and agencies had not been paid their salaries.