Sen. Soni Ogbuji, the Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, has warned the state government against reckless spending of public funds.
Ogbuoji gave the warning on Monday in Abakaliki in a statement issued by his Campaign Manager, Mr Ikenna Emewu, while reacting to allegation of fund donations made recently by the State Gov., Dave Umahi.
He condemned the donations that the state governor made to the victims of building collapse in Port Harcourt and to Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr Ejike Mbaka, at the Adoration Ministry’s 2018 Annual Thanksgiving held in Enugu.
Emewu said that Umahi, at a recent visit to Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers, said that he had made a cash donation of N5 million to the victims of the Port Harcourt building collapse.
He said the cash donation was an attempt to curry support of the Rivers State’s helmsman to stave off an impending suspension of Umahi over allegations of anti-party activities.
“The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has threatened Umahi with suspension over allegations of mounting anti-party activities.
“His visit to Port Harcourt and donation of N5 million to victims of the building collapse are desperate attempts to solicit help from the Rivers governor to save him from the impending disgrace.
“We do not condemn the governor’s show of’ ‘magnanimity’ to the victims; neither are we against his ‘given’ to the church, but we are worried about the manner Umahi has been donating money to people outside the state, while her own citizens starve.
‘‘Two weeks ago, controversial Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Mbaka had announced that Umahi donated N10 million cash, 1000 bags of Ebonyi rice and 10,000 tubers of yam to his church,’’ he said.
According to Emewu, at least N15 million donations were made by Umahi in less than two weeks and there can be some that were secretly donated.
“This is becoming reckless of a governor who could not see the need to raise funds and send the state sports contingents to the on-going National Sports Festival in Abuja.
He said that Ebonyi was the only state that was absent at the sport festival, adding that the development was a big disgrace to the state.
“Pensioners in Ebonyi are suffering from neglect and rejection due to many months of unpaid arrears and gratuities to retired workers.
“Public water supply has since gone comatose since the inception of the present administration under Umahi and yet millions of naira of public fund is spent outside Ebonyi.
‘‘We call on the citizens of the state to take notice of these reckless spending and call the governor to question as he is custodian of the wealth of the state and not his personal money.
“Ebonyi common wealth should not be used to play politics for the personal gains of the governor.
“We therefore urge the Ebonyi electorate to vote out the non-performing PDP-led state government in the 2019 governorship election for lack of credible and effective leadership.
“We wish to reiterate that the APC, if elected into government in the state, will right all the wrongs perpetrated by the incumbent state government,’’ Emewu said.
He promised that if elected, APC would address all the leadership failures in different sectors.