A group which said its mandate is to ensure that the people of Abia State do not repeat the past mistakes of voting terrible leaders into office, the Get Abia Right Group (GARG) at the weekend said that the State House of Assembly needs serious changes.
GARG in a statement made available to newsmen in Aba on Saturday further warned all political parties that wish to win election into the state House of Assembly to avoid presenting unpopular serving members of the state assembly that have already failed in their initial assignments as legislators.
The group further declared that in the course of its tour in different constituencies in the state and interaction with constituents, it discovered that Arochukwu, Ukwa West, Ukwa East and Aba Central State Constituencies representatives have failed woefully in both their legislative and oversight functions.
The statement signed by Uchenna Maxwell Adiele-Chairman, Ukah Joseph Kalu-Vice Chairman and Okechukwu Raymond Ukaeje-Secretary urged delegates who will be voting during the primaries to focus on giving Abians candidates they can vote for to avoid being deceived into voting people who have no business going into politics.
“We’re saying this because no matter the name of the party and how popular it may be, any party that gives Abians a man or a woman within 60s or above for the House of Assembly has already begun the process of their failure.
“Our House of Assembly must be fixed come 2023. Fixing it is not about renovating the buildings. We’re going to stop all rickety politicians who have nothing to offer from returning to our legislative seat or stopping those who have nothing to offer from coming close to the assembly.”
The group that it the coming days, it will start exposing anyone among the current House of Assembly members that have failed and want to be re-elected to continue their existing failures from Abia North, Abia South and Abia Central, advising such people to kindly respect themselves now because they will be made to to show their achievements so far.
GARG said that the open declaration of the failure of Arochukwu State Constituency Legislator and his colleagues in Ukwa East, Ukwa West and Aba Central State Constituency does not mean that the rest of the legislators in the state have performed wonderfully well.
“However, in the case of Arochukwu where the sitting member has boasted in public places about how he gave momey to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State to clear his path for the primary election.
“Our investigation has also shown that the same House Member is boasting of how he’ll use money (N500,000 each) to attract delegates’ votes to make him win primaries and return and continue his failure for another four years.
“All his boastful statements about connection with leadership of APC in Abia State is known to us and we shall see if APC leaders, delegates are enough to make him win the main election in Arochukwu.
“Since he believes that all he needs is his money and with his money, the coast is clear, we wish to remind him that all Arochukwu people are not members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“So when he gets the ticket of the APC through his connection to APC leadership and bribing of the delegates, we’ll mobilize all GARG members in Arochukwu to vote against him and his party, the APC.
“He can bribe the APC delegates as he has boasted but will he bribe the entire Arochukwu electorates to get their votes?
The group said that its monitoring team is all over the 17 local governments watching and listening to all manner of political statements people have been making, but derives its only solace is in the new electoral law.
“With the new electoral law, there will be no manipulations. Any political party that gives its ticket to unpopular failures like the person representing Arochukwu State Constituency, Ukwa East and West State Constituency and Aba Central state Constituency and has failed already.
“GARG will be on the ground to make 2023 a positively memorable election in Abia and our first mission is to ensure that political parties filled candidates, not above 45 years of age for our state constituencies. We’re moving towards creating new sets of leaders for Abia.”
The group said its sponsors are Abia people in the diaspora who wants better governance and that it began its tour of all the state constituencies last month.
“We’ve concluded with all the state constituencies in Abia South Senatorial Zone and we just began with Abia North starting with Arochukwu and Ohafia.
“In Abia South, we’re calling on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) never to contemplate returning the three legislators representing Ukwa East, West and Aba Central or even elevate them to any other positions. They’re failures personafied.
“In Abia North which we just began, we’re highly disappointed with the member representing Arochukwu State Constituency. The failure there is obvious from his inability to even make a contribution in the House down to complete failure in the Constituency.
“We therefore call on his party the APC, which he recently joined from APGA to forget about Arochukwu should he take the flag of the party. We must end the old era of money politics come 2023.”
GARG said it is unacceptable and the highest level of wickedness that constituents will send a man who is exposed enough to the the House of Assembly, he gets there, does nothing but decided to throw money during primary election just to find himself back to the legislative chamber.
“That’s unacceptable. No more in our Abia shall we tolerate such. In a week’s time, we will conclude Abia North and then move to Abia Central to examine all the members of the House of Assembly there.
“Meanwhile, Abians should also await our reports on the remaining state Constituencies in Abia North. The summary of this Press Statement is that we need young, vibrant and grassroots men and women in our state constituencies, not tired people with zero sense of innovative leadership.
“Therefore, any political party presenting people within the reach of 60 or already at 60 will be doing itself a disservice. We urge political parties not to create any rancor within their parties.
“They should consider if there’s any arrangement in zoning agreement be it gentleman agreement or written agreement and try to abide by such agreement.
“On a more serious note, we’re saying that the members representing Arochukwu State Constituency (Mike Ukoha), Ukwa East (Paul Taribo) and Ukwa West State Constituency (Godwin Adiele) and Aba Central (Abraham Oba) have all failed themselves, their parties and their people.”
GARG said that in a country where the separation of power is supposed to be practiced, electing members of the legislators who can make inputs and impacts is very necessary and Abians must get it right come 2023 if they want a better Government where checks and balances are part of the practice.
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