This afternoon I participated in the town hall meeting organised by The Justice, Development, Peace and Caritas Commission, Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri in collaboration with the National Voter’s Drive Coalition and the Imo Advocacy Group, awards Senator Athan Achonu

During my presentation I shared with them the key priorities in my manifesto that our government will use to take back Imo from Insecure underdeveloped state to a leading sub-national government in Nigeria.

I specifically spoke about our plans to restore peace, unity and sustainable progress through engagement of primary stakeholders at the 3rd tier of government, organising the freest and fairest LGA elections in the history of the state where only the choice of people is accepted.

Senator Athan Achonu

We will set up an electoral umpire to conduct the freest and fairest election. No matter the party you come from, once you win, we will swear you in and this will engender confidence in the polity. With the people’s trust in the ownership and rulership of the system at the local government level, we will introduce a law that allows the setting up of Vigilante to be managed and funded by the LGAs.

I will not touch a dime of the LGAs so they will have enough fund the payment of vigilantes and to perform their primary responsibility at the rural level including maintenance of rural roads and provision of basic infrastructure .

We shall also Industrialise the state by providing two industrial clusters per senatorial zone including a Oil/Gas, and pharmaceutical industries park in Orlu zone; Ceramics industries park in Okigwe zone where there is abundant granite and kaolin; as well as an agricultural park in Okigwe and Ngor Okpala. Imo youths are in dire need of employment, hence the need to create opportunities that will attract investors and investments to the state.

In the area of education, we used to be number three in education, but now we are 24th due to lack of focus on the sector. Most of our qualified teachers have now “jappad”. So, we will re-train existing teachers, and invest in the sector so that we have quality education.

In the area of agriculture, we will develop Agro-Processing hubs around the LGAs in the state. We will plant 10, 000 palm trees in every LGA as well as set up a processing plant. We used to be exporters of palm oil, so we have to restart that again.

The high point of the event was signing the Peace Accord as a show of my commitment to peaceful processes before, during and after elections.

I thank my fellow contestants- Chief Okere JohnJude, of the Accord Party; Maj. Gen Lincoln Ogunewe (Rtd) of Action Alliance; Sen. Sam Daddy Anyanwu of PDP and Sir Anthony Ejiogu of APGA for their loyalty to our dear state and courage in participating in the debate, and signing the peace accord.

I once again invite you all to join me in this unwavering effort to take back Imo.

Senator Athan Nneji Achonu
LP Governorship Candidate