A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia, Dr Chidia Maduekwe says the ongoing construction of the second Niger Bridge remains one of the landmark projects of APC in the South-East. Mduekwe said this on Saturday in an interview with newsmen after revalidation of his membership of the party at the Ohafo Ward, Asaga-Ohafia in Ohafia Local Government Area. He also took newsmen round the ongoing Federal Government’s road projects in the area, including the Arochukwu-Ohafia Road and five-kilometer Isiugwu Road.
He said that work on the Arochukwu-Ohafia Road stalled after President Muhammadu Buhari left office as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund in 1998.“It was this road that was abandoned in 1998 that the president returned to resume work on and the project is nearing completion,” he said.
He said the Isiugwu Road was being constructed for the first time since the community came into being more than 300 years ago. “When you look at these projects in Ohafia and other major roads in the Southeast, including the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, you see why APC has become the beautiful bride in this area. “In 2014 when I brought APC to Ohafia, it was like an alien party but today, I am happy that who’s who in Ohafia are migrating into the party.“ That time, we were called all sorts of names. It was so bad that when I brought the party’s flag, it was only my compound that it was allowed to be. “Now APC has become the beautiful bride because of the good governance module of the president,” Maduekwe said.
He also commended the effort of the Senate Chief Whip, Sen. Orji Kalu, in attracting over 20 rural roads in different parts of Abia North Senatorial District, including the Isiugwu Road. “This is what development is all about and the APC administration is doing all these under economic recession and dwindling financial resources,” he said. He dismissed the notion in some quarters that Buhari hated the southeast, saying the president’s performance in the zone proved otherwise.
According to him, apart from the second Niger Bridge and the roads, the president also completed the abandoned Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Mausoleum in Onitsha, Anambra. “He also installed a state-of-the-art medical equipment at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia as done at the University College Hospital, Ibadan and Ado Bayero University Teaching Hospital, Kano.“ He also gave full support to the candidacy of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the World Trade Organisation top job and appointed people like us into government. “A president who did all these for the zone cannot be said not to like our people,” Maduekwe, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Film Corporation, Jos, said.He described the ongoing APC registration and revalidation exercise as a huge success in Ohafia, saying the responses had been very impressive. “You can see that APC is organic in nature and has continued to evolve to a point that we are very strong to take more members.“ That is why our people must continue to identify with the party because where Nigeria is, there Asaga, Ohafia and entire Abia will be,” Maduekwe said.Also, two chieftains of the party in the area, Chief Uche Ogboso and Emeka Kalu, said that their people were trooping into the party because of APC’s superlative performance in the entire senatorial district. They said that what Kalu had attracted to the area, in terms of infrastructure development, since his election into the Senate, remained unparalleled since the return of democratic governance in 1999.