APGA blames Ikpeazu for embarking on foreign trips while Abia workers suffer from unpaid salaries

The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia state has accused the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu of embarking on frivolous trips while workers and pensioners suffer due to unpaid salaries.

Addressing reporters at the party’s secretariat in Umuahia, the state chairman of the party, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere criticised Ikpeazu for abandoning governance.

Noting that nothing is moving in the state, Ehimere said APGA is “pained by the obvious abandonment of governance by the Okezie Ikpeazu-led government.

“We regret to state that the present government has taken the disastrous path to failure by completely abandoning its primary responsibilities to the people of the state.”

Ehiemere stated that there has been complete halt in government activities “especially in the areas of project execution and payment of workers’ salaries”, stressing that “This shows that the allocation being given to these Local Government Areas develop wings immediately they are received by the state.

“Unfortunately, this unjust practice has continued unabated while the people at the grassroots suffer untold hardship as a result of underdevelopment, while workers and pensioners are subjected to the worst form of indignation and oppression due to non-payment of salaries.”

Maintaining that the state is blessed with numerous sources of internal revenue generation, APGA accused Ikpeazu of allowing “illegal revenue agents to fritter away the state resources.

“After receiving over N60 billion in its one year in office with annual wage bill of about N28 billion, the few road projects on ground which are the only achievements of the present government cannot in any way justify the aforementioned revenue gotten by the government.”

Recall that a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, Paul Ikonne, had recently bemoaned the state of roads in Aba, saying they are not motor-able.

Ehiemere also challenged Ikpeazu “to show the dividends of his numerous tours abroad on the pretense of attracting foreign investment.

“In each of the trips which his government claimed was aimed at bringing investors to Abia, he was accompanied by dozens of aides and associates but unfortunately up till this moment, not even a single investor has been sighted in any part of Abia after millions of tax payers money have been frittered away.”