TheCable

Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo, says he will arrest and prosecute Athan Achonu, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the state. 

Achonu is one of the contenders against Uzodinma in the November 11 governorship election in the state.

Speaking on Wednesday in Owerri, the state capital, Uzodimma accused the LP candidate of claiming to have built primary healthcare centres across the 27 LGAs.

The governor said Achonu who formerly represented Imo north senatorial district, had in no time built community healthcare centres, insisting that such a claim was misleading and a criminal act punishable by law.

He added that the former lawmaker “made away with millions of dollars allocated to the healthcare project by the federal government”.

Uzodinma said the Imo state federal allocation is being deducted at source in payment of the “embezzled funds”, noting that the deduction is inhibiting development in the state.

“One of the governorship contestants who embezzled the primary healthcare funds of the 27 LGA health centres in the state went to court and obtained a fraudulent judgement,” NAN quoted Uzodimma as saying.

“Now Imo state allocation from the Federal Government is being deducted at source for the payment of the huge debt.

“This is a criminal act and I must follow it up to the end. I will arrest and prosecute him before the November 11 governorship election.

“Imo is using the money which could be channelled to other developmental projects to offset huge debts incurred by one man in the name of a primary healthcare project. Does this person want the best for Imo state?”

Meanwhile, Chibuikem Diala, the director of media and publicity of the Athan Achonu campaign organisation,  said the governor may be hallucinating.

Diala said the LP candidate has completed over 70 percent of the primary healthcare project in the state, adding that they are visible and functional in many communities, including that of the governor.

“The allegation that Mathan Nigeria Limited, owned by Senator Achonu, collected billions of Naira from the Federal Government for the construction of Primary Health Care Centre in each of the 774 Local Government Areas in the country and later abandoned the project, is completely false and a mere blackmail,” NAN quoted saying.

“The project, as we speak, is very visible and functional in several communities of the state, including Omuma which is the governor’s country home.

“This is nothing but a political witch-hunting against our principal whose popularity is overwhelming the APC family.

“If not, why is it that it is only now when the Imo Governorship election is around the corner and Senator Achonu is garnering massive followership, that this unverified issue suddenly appeared to be a public discourse?

“It is necessary to also state here that 195 PHCs had been completed pre -2020 and 363 PHCs completed post-2020.

“This makes it a total of 558 PHCs accounting for over 70% of the total centres, which further corroborates the point that the project is still ongoing.

“Imolites will be pleased and impressed to know that unlike those Imo leaders who are awarded projects and end up pleasing their paymasters and taking development away from Imo State, Senator Athan Achonu in the spirit and letter of the Akuruoulo advocacy ensured that all the Primary Health Centres in all the 27 LGAs in Imo State have been completed. The records are there for verification.”

He dismissed Uzodimma’s accusations as  “wicked lies from the pit of hell” and “mere political fabrications” intended to distract the popularity of the LP candidate in the forthcoming polls.