Knocks On Okorocha Over 3 New Statues
By Austin Echefu
Loading ...Governor Okorocha’s plan to apend alleged whooping sum of N700 Million to erect the statues of three deceased leaders, including late Chief Michael Okpara, Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and late Sam Mbakwe, has received knocks from the Imo PDP Integrity Forum.
Speaking on the development, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Obi Mbadiwe, condemned the plan while addressing newsmen, describing it as one lacking economic value to the state and brazen display of insensitivity to the plights of the suffering Imolites, including civil servants and pensioners.
According to him, erecting three more statues at the sum of N700 Million is a crazy idea that needs to be discouraged at this moment of economic recession, when many families are finding it difficult to eat a meal a day.
“This idea of using erecting statue to embezzle huge sums of money while the people are suffering and many unable to eat one meal a day must stop”, he said.
Hon Mbadiwe wondered why the state government has decided to squander the resources of Imo state on statues and images that add no value to the lives of the masses of the state, saying that while the already unveiled statues of Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Mrs. Sirleaf Johnson of Liberia and others were still causing ripples across Nigeria and other African countries, Governor Okorocha still has the face to erect more statues.
He noted that there must be something more than meets the eyes in the Governor’s statue-erecting jamboree.
He advised the Governor to halt the move and redirect the huge amount to payment of arrears of pensions and civil servants salaries, even as he reminded Okorocha that the amount in question including the one spent on Zuma’s statue could provide soft loans for small and medium scale businesses or be invested in quality healthcare for the people even used to resettle traders displaced from demolished markets in Imo state to alleviate their suffering, he asserted.
