As Nigeria marks her 26th Democracy Day celebration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has told the Governor Hope Uzodinma, to restore the confidence of the people in democratic governance, insisting that his administration lacks integrity and transparency.
In a press statement to mark this year’s Democracy Day, the Publicity Secretary of the party, Lancelot Obiaku, stated that even though the Uzodinma regime is lacking in democratic tenets, it can still make amends with less than three years to the end of its tenure.
The PDP emphasized that there is little or nothing in the state to trigger elation of the average Imo citizen amid the celebration of democracy, citing the absence of transparency, accountability, respect for the rule of law, and monumental corruption as realities that make Gov. Uzodinma’s administration uncivil.
The party accused Gov. Uzodinma of undermining the role of the legislature and the judiciary, and effectively leading a government where the executive runs without recourse to other arms of government.
It said citizens of the state are now weary of what it described, as prevailing human rights abuses, extra-judicial killings, administrative recklessness, abuse of power, and lack of power separation that signposts his regime.
The PDP said that the governance style of Gov. Uzodinma negates democratic tenets and has stifled the development of the state, becoming the catalyst for the regression being witnessed in key sectors of the state’s economy.
“For instance, how can people really celebrate democracy in a state that is without a chief judge for close to a year because of the governor’s greed and undemocratic nature? This is the first of its kind in the history of Imo State.
“When the post became vacant on November 16, 2024, it was incumbent on the governor to request from the National Judicial Council recommendations for the appointment of the most senior judicial officer as chief judge in accordance with Section 271 (4) of the constitution.
“Instead, the governor went ahead to appoint and even swear in Justice Theophilus Nzeukwu, who is not qualified, as the acting chief judge without recourse to the judicial process, which prompted the NJC to declare the appointment of Justice Nzeukwu as acting chief judge of the state void.
“This development has brought the state to public opprobrium. The absence of a chief judge for eight months means cases are not being assigned because only the chief judge can do so, as well as many other functions only a chief judge can perform in a democracy,” the release stated.
According to Obiaku, today in the state, contracts awarded by the government are not advertised and the governor has shut down the Public Procurement Bureau.
The process of award of contracts, according to him, is kept secret and not even the state House of Assembly has a say.
He asserted that the costs and other contract details are not made known to the people who ordinarily are central to governance in a democratic setting.
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“We have seen the government recently re-award the World Bank–Umuguma and the Nekede–Iheanwa roads in Owerri for construction.
“These are roads awarded in 2020 by the same administration for tens of billions without anything tangible happening on the roads.
“This is the height of theft and sleaze perpetrated by an administration with a morbid inclination to fraud.
“Uzodinma has refused to conduct a democratic local government election, and having appointed sole administrators in the name of local government chairmen, has continued to starve the people of the dividends of democracy by depriving them the government that should ordinarily be the closest to them,” the press statement further stated.
The PDP spokesperson hinted that Imo citizens have seen over N500 billion of local government allocation since the inception of the present regime go down the drain, with nothing to show for it.
He narrated that under Gov. Uzodinma’s administration in 2022, at least 14 young men were allegedly murdered in broad daylight by a band of militiamen whom eyewitnesses reported to be the government’s dreaded strike force, often described as Ebubeagu.
The PDP, however, urged citizens of the state not to completely lose faith in democratic governance or stop participating in the democratic process, assuring them that the administration of the present APC regime in the state will only last for a while.