As the race and debate on who becomes the next governor of Imo State gathering momentum, a leading governorship aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Charles C. Onyeagbako has called on the people of the state to use the power of their vote to ensure that no one who has served in the administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha in any capacity gets their mandate, either at the primary election or main election, as according to him, such people should have no business trying to succeed a government in which they have played one role or another in impoverishing the people and destroying the pillars upon which modern democracy, development and prosperity are built.
Chief Onyeagbako stated this last weekend in Owerri during an interaction with newsmen.
According to the erudite lawyer who has made his mark in public service at all levels as councilor, LGA Executive Chairman, Commissioner and member of a Federal Board, for Imo State not to become a failed state, only a governor who is an excellent manager of human and financial resources could deliver the state from the mess Governor Okorocha had brought upon it, stressing that his regime as governor would creatively look inward for sourcing its internally Generated Revenue (IGR), just as Anambra State has been doing to offset cost of governance and also build capital projects without oil revenue.
Chief Onyeagbako who is a former APGA State Chairman in which position he got his party’s first ever secretariat and branded bus, referred to a recent release by the Debt Management Office (DMO) which shows Imo State having one of the highest Irrevocable Standing Order of Payment (ISOP) which means that funds coming into the state from the federation account must have a huge part deducted by banks leaving the state with almost nothing as a result of excessive borrowing.
He regretted however, that the Okorocha administration had been rescheduling and renegotiating this debt to 2019 for the next governor to bear the burden, adding that this is inspite of Imo State receiving 13% oil derivation.
The governorship hopeful also informed that the state’s domestic debt stood at N80.8 Billion while the foreign debt profile was $63million, stressing that his administration would provide adequate IGR with a sensible tax regime, appropriate policies and programmes that would attract investors and develop our local resources to create employment for our teeming jobless youths.
Onyeagbako stressed that only a person who has never had anything to do with Okorocha’s administration could be trusted to re-position the state on the part of progress, otherwise the financial recklessness and its attendant impoverishment of the state would continue with cover-up. Chief Onyeagbako further promised to hold the present administration accountable for their action. He observed that his achievements in Owerri North LGA which earned him the best LGA Chairman of the time could still be seen all over the LGA and would be replicated all over the state when he becomes governor in 2019, informing that he would establish an intelligent administration with experts and technocrats in all areas of life to spear head total development of the state.