Democracy Day:Your gov’t lacks integrity, ridicules democracy,Imo PDP tells Uzodimma
“We have seen over N500 billion of LGA allocation since the inception of the present regime go down the drain with nothing to show for it — not in the development of rural infrastructure, commerce and industry, education, payment of minimum wage, pensions, and gratuities.
As Nigeria marks her 26th Democracy Day celebration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Imo State chapter, has told the Governor of the State, Hope Uzodimma, to restore the confidence of the people in democratic governance, insisting that the State Government under his watch lacks integrity and ridicules democracy.
The party said that even though the Uzodimma regime is a product of a bizarre democratic coup, it can still make amends even with less than three years to go.
In its Democracy Day message, Imo PDP emphasized that there is little or nothing in the State to trigger elation of the average Imo citizen amid the celebration of democracy, citing the absence of transparency, accountability, and respect for the rule of law and monumental corruption as realities that make the Uzodimma administration notorious.
The party accused Uzodimma of undermining the roles of the legislature and the judiciary, and effectively leading a government where the executive runs without recourse to other arms of government, noting that citizens are now weary of the prevailing human rights abuses, extra-judicial killings, administrative recklessness, abuse of power and lack of power separation that signposts his regime.
The PDP said that the governance style of the Governor negates democratic tenet and has stifled development of the State, becoming the catalyst for the regression being witnessed in key sectors of the State’s economy.
“For instance, how can people really celebrate democracy in a State that is without a Chief Judge close to a year because of the Governor’s greed and undemocratic nature? This is the first of its kind in the history of Imo State. When the post became vacant on November 16, 2024, it was incumbent on the Governor to request from the National Judicial Council recommendation for the appointment of the most senior judicial officer as Chief Judge in accordance with Section 271 (4) of the Nigerian Constitution.
“Instead, the Governor went ahead to appoint and even swear in Hon. Justice Theophilus Nnamdi Nzeukwu who is not qualified as the Acting Chief Judge without recourse to the judiciary, prompting the NJC to declare the appointment of Nzeukwu as acting Chief Judge of Imo State void. This development has brought the State to public opprobrium. The absence of a Chief Judge for 8 months means cases are not being assigned because only the Chief Judge can do so, as well as many other functions only a Chief Judge can perform in a democracy.
“Today in Imo State, contracts awarded by the government are not advertised and the Governor has shut down the Public Procurement Beareu. The process of award of contracts are kept secret and not even the State Assembly (legislature) has a say on them. The costs and other contract details are not made known to the people who ordinarily are central to governance in a democratic setting.
“We have seen the government recently reaward the World Bank – Umuguma and the Nekede-Iheanwa roads in Owerri for construction. These are roads awarded in 2020 by the same administration for tens of billions without anything tangible happening on the roads. This is the height of theft and sleaze perpetrated by an administration with a morbid inclination to fraud.
“Uzodimma has refused to conduct a democratic LGA election, and having appointed sole administrators in the name of LGA Chairmen, has continued to starve the people of the dividends of democracy by depriving them the government that should ordinarily be the closest to them.
“We have seen over N500 billion of LGA allocation since the inception of the present regime go down the drain with nothing to show for it — not in the development of rural infrastructure, commerce and industry, education, payment of minimum wage, pensions, and gratuities, etc.
“Under Uzodimma’s draconian regime in 2022, at least fourteen young men who had gone to a traditional marriage ceremony from Otulu community in Oru West LGA to Awo-Omamma in Oru East LGA, both in Imo State, were gruesomely murdered in broad day light by a band of militiamen whom eyewitnesses reported to be the government’s dreaded strike force often described as Ebubeagu.
“The government claimed that the slain youths were terrorists and bandits and lied that they were killed by the DSS during a gun battle in the criminals’ camp somewhere in the forest. This is despite the plethora of testimonies, cries and hues by members of the community and families of the victims, pleading their innocence and calling for justice. This and many other cases of human rights abuses and abuse of power are what the Uzodimma administration has been known for five years.
“Recently, the Agwa community in Oguta LGA of the State decried the reckless killing of over 100 of its members by suspected Fulani terrorists and herdsmen. In the face of this, and so many cases of killings, kidnapping and organ harvesting witnessed in the State, the Uzodimma administration remains silent, never showing empathy to those affected nor providing a lasting solution. This is not democracy.”
- Imo PDP, however, urges citizens of the State not to completely lose faith in democratic governance or stop participating in the democratic process, assuring them that the ruinous reign of the present APC regime in the State will only last for a while.
