Former Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, has urged the Southeast to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on Saturday.
Ihedioha said Atiku’s victory would resolve the anger in the Southeast’s people caused by marginalisation.
He spoke on Wednesday during a town hall meeting organised by PDP youths tagged: “Youths and students as catalysts for PDP’s 2023 general election” in Owerri, the state capital.
Ihedioha warned that the administration of the All Progressive Congress, APC, has been a curse to the people of Imo State and Nigeria.
He said the youths should not make the mistake of voting for another party that will compound their woes.
According to Ihedioha: “For us, Imo is a PDP state, but we have been blown by a wave; that’s why we have to work harder. Southeast has invested tremendously in National development, we’re very industrious, and we have done so much to advance the country’s technology, but what we’re getting is not commensurate with it.
“That’s why there is fatigue and anger in the land. The APC administration has been a curse to the nation, but the dark days must soon be over; we must not work in anger, our faculty must be intact, it’s important we come out of the misery but we’re going to be very careful.
“We must work in tandem with the National, we have to win twenty-five percent across the States plus FCT, and we believe it’s tilting to the one that will unify the country once again; that’s why everybody from the west, east and north should vote for Atiku Abubakar, it has become necessary to bring in the man that understands the country.
“For us in Imo, it’s obvious insecurity has taken over our state; we need a president that can restore it so that we can go back to our villages again without fear; all National opinion polls give Atiku an edge, our future with him in the southeast is guaranteed.”
Earlier in his speech, the deputy director of Youth Mobilisation for the Atiku Presidential Campaign, Chinonso Obasi, a former member of the 2014 National Confab, noted that only Atiku would implement all the recommendations beneficiary to the Southeast as proposed by the Confab.
Obasi said: “The recommendations of the Confab, if implemented, would have benefitted the Igbo; it is proposed for extra states, it is only here we have five states, others have six and seven, but Atiku has promised to implement it for us if he becomes president.
“The Confab also recommended that the Southeast, as a result of the civil war, would be reconstructed and rebuilt, but that has not happened. He would implement it for us, again for Nigerian students. They will have access to the loan as recommended in the Confab; he has set aside $10 billion for youth employment. All these youths will benefit by voting for him on Saturday,” Obasi said.
