Ikechukwu Iroha
It is very unfortunate that telling lies and propaganda is what APC and her members are known for in Nigeria. Only God knows who will deliver them from this malignancy that is more infectious than Ebola and multiplies uncontrollably among even new APC members to deform them once they join the party.
When you travel from Umuahia to Akwa Ibom State through Ikot Ekpene road you will see a billboard announcing the contract awarded to Chomen Construction company for the construction of Ariam-Usaka Ring Road, Ikwuano.
That project was awarded to the company belonging to former member of the federal house of representative, Mr Iheanacho Obioma, who is now an APC Chieftain in Abia State.
The road project was abandoned after “honorable” Obioma collected more than 90% of the total contract sum from a previous administration in the state.
Many more abandoned projects by Chomen litter Abia Central Senatorial zone including even projects he recently collected mobilization payments from the Ikpeazu administration and vowed to complete but have failed to do so to date. The same man uses Chomen Nigeria Limited and Worldwide Investment Limited to operate in Abia State.
The worst part is that since 1999 Acho Obioma and his Chomen Nigeria Limited have been actively involved in sabotaging road construction works around Umuahia through legal subterfuge. The company collects road construction contracts from the state government, gets mobilization fees of more than 50%, install signboards then abandon the road. When a new government emerges and attempts to re-award the contract to a new company Chomen will quickly rush to court and obtain an injunction to prevent the new contractor and the government from working for the people of the area.
More than 15 road projects previously awarded to Acho Obioma’s Chomen Nigeria Ltd are currently tied in courts and whole common folks are suffering he is busy building gigantic structures at Abuja with their money.
When political jobbers like Obioma Iheanocho talk about a “performing” government they are simply talking about a government that pays them their personal “entitlements” as against the general wellbeing of the people.
I challenge Obioma Iheanacho to point to one single project his company, Chomen Nigeria Limited, completed in Abia State and delivered that is still standing to date. If he fails to do that I will seek information from the Abia State Ministry of Works and share with the world how much he has siphoned from the state’s lean purse over the years with nothing to show.
The reality in Abia State is that once the public funds draining pipe of a politician with entitlement mentality is unplugged from the treasury of the state he becomes a lover of the people seeking their good. We have seen that happen over and over again.
Obviously the Ikpeazu administration have unplugged Ihenacho Obioma’s looting pipe and he is angry and seeking attention.
Serves him right.
If in the past 16 years Mr Obioma never complained of nepotism even while Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State, was rotting away he has lost the right to sit in judgement against the two year old administration of Governor Ikpeazu that is spreading development across the state.
For the avoidance of doubt, the same Obioma who alleged nepotism acknowledged that Arab Contractors, a grade A construction company, is working along Aba road in Umuahia. A massive drainage construction work has been concluded along that key road and portions of the road have already been asphalted. Work is ongoing even as Mr Obioma was granting his interview to Vanguard Newspaper and Abians are free to visit the project site to confirm.
If indeed Arab Contractors have only been paid N1b for all they work they have done along Aba road Umuahia and they delivered as much as they have done, then Mr Obioma of Chomen Nigeria Limited should answer to Abians on what he has done with the money paid to him for Ariam-Usaka Ikwuano ring road. Did he also share the money with his APC friends at Abuja?
Checks at the state ministry of works confirm that the total cost of the work being done by Arab Contractors along Aba road Umuahia is less than N1b. Acho Obioma is merely throwing fake figures around like a typical monkey pox politician of APC fold.
The same Ikpeazu administration has delivered Road 2 at world bank Umuahia, worked on Umuwaya road, Kaduna Street, Awolowo road, Bank road and many others in Umuahia. Governor Ikpeazu recently funded contractors to commence work at Agbama in Umuahia and has commissioned the by-pass at Ohuhu area in addition to working on the erosion site at Isingwu Umuahia.
All those are in addition to ongoing work at Abia north including Abiriba-Nkporo road, Abiriba ring road, Nkpa road, Idima Abam and Ndi Okereke roads leading to Arochukwu etc.
Those with heads for arithmetic will confirm to you that Governor Ikpeazu is working on more kilometers of roads around the old Bende area than at Aba. Where then lies the basis for allegation of nepotism or partitioning of development projects against old Bende people?
On the school feeding program, it is obvious that Mr Obioma has failed to properly educate himself on the program to understand that the state, through the office of the wife of the Governor and philanthropists in Abia State, is contributing more than 70% of the cost of the free feeding project, in addition to providing free Made in Aba school sandals for thousands of Abia School Children.
The involvement of the federal government, which is just recent, is a welcome development, yet not enough for any informed person to claim that it is a federal government project in Abia State.
Interestingly, Obioma’s co-travelers in Abia opposition opposed the school feeding program when it was launched and not even a single one of them donated money or materials to the program. They called it “a waste of resources and misplacement of priorities” then but with the state government doggedly pursuing the program to reasonable success they are crawling out to claim credit.
Shameful.
If Mr Obioma now believes that the program belongs to the APC led federal government then it is time for him and others that have over the years siphoned money belonging to Abia Children to support the project by donating materials to the program.
Everyone in Abia State know that APC is the place of refuge for either shady politicians with EFCC case to answer or those seeking to escape from accounting to the people for past misdeeds. I wish Mr Obioma well in his attempt to protect himself from the law for his many failed projects dotting the landscape of Abia State.
But he must realize that one day is for the thief and another day is for the owner of the house.
Abians will never swallow their vomit by allowing those who underdeveloped the state in the past to come near power again. Our children and their children will never forgive anyone who supports or vote for those class of state destroyers masquerading as politicians that Obioma represents as a poster child.
We wholeheartedly reject APC and it’s works and soon Mr Obioma Iheanocho will feel the depths of our people’s rejection once again at the polls.
A failed politician will always fail, so let the failures of Abia State politics who have gathered themselves in a nationally acclaimed failed political contraption called APC continue to enjoy their masturbations until we meet at polling units where the people of Abia state will eloquently confirm that Governor Ikpeazu is doing his job very well.
Ikechukwu Iroha wrote from Umuahia
