Rochas Okorocha squandered N236 billion on Christmas trees, moulding statues – Okey Ezeh

Rochas Okorocha squandered N236 billion on Christmas trees, moulding statues – Okey Ezeh

A top contender for the Imo State gubernatorial seat, Mr. Okey Ezeh has said the state cannot afford to have another wasteful, insensitive and unaccountable government come 2019, disclosing that the incumbent administration has blown over N236 billion merely on overhead costs even when the critical sectors of the state’s economy remain in a shambles.

In a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, Okey Ezeh Campaign Organization, Collins Opurozor, which was made available to newsmen in Owerri on Wednesday, Ezeh, who is gunning for the coveted seat on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), insisted that the Okorocha Administration has plunged the state into huge economic crisis by mismanaging scant resources and even obtaining loans to finance waste.

“This administration has only succeeded in squandering all we have and mortgaging future generations with unpayable debt stocks. Imo State has a budget deficit which runs into almost N2b monthly as a result of waste, corruption and poor managerial acumen of the present administration in the state.

“Every month, this administration blows N2.81b monthly on overhead costs, which specifically go into maintaining luxury guesthouses, lengthy convoys, flying private jets, erecting statues, shooting bangers and building Christmas trees. This means that for the period this government has lasted, over N236.04 billion has been wasted on frivolities. How these have come to be priotized in a state where pensioners die of starvation, where civil servants are punished with a pay cut even in the face of falling purchasing power of the Naira, where nearly one million youths are completely unemployed, and where there is no single kilometer of road that is in good shape only reminds us of the depth of bad leadership which Imo is enmeshed in and the need for collective action to salvage our state,” Ezeh said.

The accomplished banker lamented that Imo is needlessly perishing amid vast human and material resources. He however assured Imo people that there is a glimmer of light in the horizon, as they have another opportunity to properly scrutinize the type of people with whom to entrust leadership come 2019.

He said many things need to be done differently in the state, and when given the opportunity Imo shall be placed on the path of sustainable growth and development through agro-industrial initiatives which will gainfully engage the energies of the teeming youth population in the state, berth food security and earn the state foreign exchange.