The people revealed this at the town-hall meetings held at Ikolo and Ukehe, headquarters of Igbo-Etiti Central and Igbo-Etiti East Development Centres, respectively, where different sections of the communities that make up the development centres were given the opportunity to present their priority needs and expectations to the governorship hopeful.
The stakeholders who commended Mbah for what they described as his rare citizens’ engagements, even with the people at the grassroots, said his words command confidence, adding that they’re confident of what he will do once he assumes office as next governor of the state.
Speaking at Ukehe, the executive chairman of the council area, Barr. Ikenna Nwodo insisted that Ukehe and other communities in the development centres are the home and cradle of the PDP, and pledged to do everything possible to deliver his candidacy, adding that “our people have already transferred their trust and confidence in Dr. Peter Mbah.”
Assuring that PDP will clinch all the votes in the local government, Hon. Martins Oke who is representing Igbo-Etiti and Uzo-Uwani federal constituency, Rt. Hon. Arch. James Achaadu, House of Assembly member for Igbo-Etiti West constituency, Hon. Festus Ishenyi, Chief Okechukwu Itanyi, former deputy governor of the state, Hon. Victor Obute, among others, reiterated their unswerving loyalty to the party, saying there’s no room for the opposition in the area.
Similarly, the people also rolled out the drums to celebrate the PDP administration led by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for empowering their sons and daughters, including sponsoring and facilitating the election of Chief Nnia Nwodo as the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, massive employments for their youths, appointments into key offices and provisions of new infrastructure.
Addressing newsmen at the interactive session, a stakeholder from one of the communities, Hon. Chidera Nwodo said his team had embarked on aggressive grassroots campaign, saying their voter education and sensitization were being conducted ward to ward, house to house and market to market.
Describing Dr. Mbah and his running mate, Barr Ifeanyi Ossai as the only persons with the political will and audacity to interrogate and displace convention and do things differently, Nwodo expressed confidence that Mbah’s $30 billion dollars economy is not only possible but also achievable.
He added that youths in Ukehe and its environs have vowed not to leave any stone unturned until Dr. Mbah is declared victorious in March 2023, maintaining that, “Dr. Peter Mbah is going to ride to the Lion Building on our mandate, and we are supporting him because of his excellent and exceptional manifesto. Elections are cast and won at the polling units and not on social media. Nsukka people have taken ownership of this project. It’s our project because Mbah has effectively addressed our fears, needs, concerns and expectations”.
Meanwhile, some of the speakers called on Mbah to attract more development projects in their areas in order to create jobs, open up their rural communities to urbanisation through construction of access roads, completion of their school of nursing, and reticulation of existing water project.
Reacting to his massive endorsement by the communities, Mbah assured them that PDP under his administration will continue to deliver good governance by prioritizing the people’s welfare and improving their living conditions.
Mbah, who assured them that equity, justice and fairness, and politics of inclusiveness, will be the dictates of his government, further added that their decision to vote for him and other PDP candidates have imposed collective responsibility on them to discharge by reciprocating their gesture.
“You have imposed an obligation which we’ll discharge in a manner that will be satisfactory to you all and even exceed your expectations. We have a comprehensive programme that will see that our youths are productively engaged.
“We have an integrated rural development programmes that will open up our rural communities to development, and we’ll ensure uniform development across the state. No community will be left behind in our development plans.
“With our plan to construct 10,000 kilometers of roads, we are going to link the 17 local government areas, including feeder roads to farmlands that will facilitate easy accessibility of farm produce.
“We plan to wage war against hunger and unemployment by eradicating poverty. We’ll do this by creating special economic zones across the state, establish agro-allied processing zones with a value chain that will include processing, packaging, storage and attractive market for our agricultural products,” Mbah added.
Mbah, who is most favoured as the next governor of the state by results of almost all the opinion polls released so far, enjoined the people not to allow themselves to be deceived by those that are ill-prepared for the job, promising to exceed expectations of the people.
