The people of Mgbowo in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State have dissociated themselves from the allegations of marginalisation levelled against the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who represents Enugu West Senatorial District and the Member representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji River Federal Constituency, Hon. Toby Okechukwu.
Loading ...Reacting to the press statement issued in Abuja earlier in the week by Mr. Humphrey Onyima and a few Mgbowo indigenes resident in Abuja, the traditional Prime Minister of Ekpulato Mgbowo Autonomous community, Prof. Joseph Akpa and the President-General of Ekpulambo Mgbowo Autonomous community, Chief Emeka Onwude, said the statement “did not in any way represent the opinion of the diverse people of the five villages that make up Mgbowo community, who have, like every other community in the whole of Enugu West Senatorial Zone, benefited immensely from the developmental strides by the lawmakers”.
Apologising to the lawmakers for the misadventure of Onyima and other persons whom they said was “on his own” in pursuit of selfish personal agenda, noted that the contract and mobilisation for the urbanisation of Aki na Ukwa junction and the entire Eke Mgbowo area mentioned by Onyima had already been awarded by the Peoples Democratic Party government of Enugu State of which Ekweremadu and Hon. Okechukwu are very friendly with.
Continuing, they said: “Although Enugu West is made up of 81 wards, of which Mgbowo is just one, it is on record that Ekweremadu attracted the construction of an ultra modern library as well as the equipment of an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) centre built in our secondary schools.
“The construction of the Inyi-Amata road is in this year’s national budget courtesy of the Deputy Senate President and work will soon commence after the rainy season.
“He attracted solar-powered street lighting to Mgbowo, while hundreds of Mgbowo indigenes have benefited from and many more are still in school today courtesy of the Ikeoha Scholarship Scholarship Scheme of Ikeoha Foundation.
“Ekweremadu has facilitated the appointment of many Mgbowo indigines into the federal civil service and federal parastatals, with several of them appointed the heads of federal agencies. The same applies to political appointments”.
Also speaking, the President-General of Ekpulato Mgbowo Autonomous Community, Chief Mba Godwin, maintained that Hon. Toby Okechukwu had provided science equipments to all the the secondary schools in Mgbowo, while consistently sponsoring students of Mgbowo origin for West African School Certificate Examination (WAEC).
“Hon. Toby has done well in the area of employment of Mgbowo indignes at both federal and state levels. He has empowered our youth and women through agro-based training at various times”, he said.
The community, which challenged Onyima to point at any singular contribution of those they described as his “political paymasters who are mostly non-indigenes of Mgbowo” to their town, said “Onyima and his puppeteers do not know their left from their right”.
They said people who rarely visit home should ask questions to avoid attributing the development efforts on ground to their misadventure and reckless utterances.
