Anambra 2017: Ogbaru community endorses Obiano for second term

As the chances of Governor Willie Obiano in clinching the November governorship election in Anambra State brightens by the day, the Umunankwo community in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State led by its traditional ruler, His Royal Highness, Igwe Emeka Gilbert Ononuju has endorsed him for a second term.

The riverine community took the stand when the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Political Matters, Comrade Arinzechukwu Awogu, visited the community as part of the ongoing grassroots mobilisation for the re-election of Gov. Willie Obiano.

Awogu and his team were received at the palace of the traditional ruler by Igwe Ononuju himself and his cabinet members alongside elders and youths of the community.

Speaking through the immediate past President General of the community, Chief Victor Mbanefo, the community thanked Gov. Willie Obiano for remembering them in his last three and half years in office,

saying that erosion was almost cutting off the community from the rest of Ogbaru until the Gov. Willie Obiano rescued them through the N20m Choose Your Project Initiative and today that they have been reconnected with other communities in Ogbaru.

They also said that never in the history of the community has any government remembered them for appointment as Obiano did in the appointment of their son, Engr Walter Okechukwu Udeze as Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters.

He said they have also heard of another appointment coming the way of the community and therefore have concluded that Gov. Willie Obiano has the votes of their people even without asking of them.

But the community wanted to be assured that their votes for Gov. Willie Obiano will be credited to them and not to those who were given money in the last general election (2015), but instead of using the money to deliver APGA chose to hide the money in their car booths which led to APGA losing the 2015 election in Umunankwo.

In his address, the traditional ruler Igwe Ononuju affirmed that the community has resolved to support the governor for a second term in office

and appealed to the governor to look into the community’s Town Union matter with the view to recognising the choice of the majority of the community as the chairman for the Caretaker Committee now that the three months period given to the former Caretaker Committee has expired.

He also reminded the state government that the second project that the community is bidding for is a Skill Acquisition Centre, where their teeming youths could learn skills to better their lives,

maintaining that any person or persons approaching government with any other project other than Skill Acquisition Centre does not have the mandate of the community and should be ignored as such will be vehemently resisted by the Umunankwo community.

Also speaking, Engr. Udeze, Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Political Matters, who is a son of the community said that Gov. Obiano was the best thing that has happened to the community and opined that the only way to appreciate the governor for his love for Umunankwo people was to massively vote for him in the coming election.

He cautioned the people against the antics of those who are being used to divide the community saying that the community was ruled from the Igwe’s palace not anywhere else and that the decision taken at the palace to support the re-election of Gov Willie Obiano was binding on Ndi-Umunankwo.

Comrade Arinzechukwu Awogu in his response thanked the community for their decision to endorse Gov. Willie Obiano as their choice for the November election and informed them that Ogbaru obviously will not be stampeded into voting because someone lives next door.

“But that Ogbaru people will vote because there is conviction and part of the conviction is that we can now since after the civil war sleep with our two eyes closed in Anambra State,” he said.

He saud that Gov. Obiano has fulfilled the primary responsibility of government which is the provision of security and welfare as Section 14 subsection 2(b) of the 1999 constitution as amended implied:

“The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: …” he said.

Awogu maintained that it was on the basis of the above, as contained in Chapter 2, under fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy that drove Gov. Willie Obiano’s government into monumental sweep off of all forms of crime

and criminality out of Anambra State which earned the governor accolades from far and near, bringing the state to the number one position in crime fighting.

“This and many more are the reasons why we cannot at this point afford to joke with the re-election of Gov. Willie Obiano, we must guard the security we now enjoy in Anambra State jealously by re-electing Gov. Willie Obiano come November 18th,” Awogu concluded.

Others who spoke were Sir Lar Uzor, Chief Oseloks (Owelle Igwe) as well as a 94 year old woman, Mrs Theresa Udeze, the mother of Engr. Udeze.