There was a carnival in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State yesterday as virtually all the leaders and stakeholders of the council, including the traditional rulers, clergymen, other indigenes, and supporters of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi converged on Premier Primary School, Ukpabi, to reaffirm their unanimous support and resolve to vote massively for the governor at the poll to represent Enugu North Senatorial District in the National Assembly on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The people of Uzo-Uwani LGA also rallied support for the PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the party’s candidate for Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Martins Oke, the candidate for Uzo-Uwani Constituency, Hon. Chukwuma Martins Ekwueme, among others, pledging to deliver 99 percent votes to the PDP at the forthcoming elections in the state.
They said that Governor Ugwuanyi is the only leader who had remembered Uzo-Uwani LGA in the scheme of things and brought peace and massive development projects to the council after decades of neglect.
The people expressed gratitude to Governor Ugwuanyi for his dogged and fruitful struggles for Enugu State to enjoy oil producing status in the country, following the discovery and ratification of oil existence in Uzo-Uwani LGA.
The Uzo-Uwani people pointed out that the inherent benefits of the oil discovery to their people and council are enormous and thanked Governor Ugwuanyi specifically for the bold initiative and remarkable accomplishment.
Describing ingratitude as “a crime more despicable than revenge,” the people of Uzo-Uwani LGA dissociated themselves from the strange and unpopular acts by a few “ungrateful elements” among them who they said were returning good deeds with evil by biting the hands that fed them, declaring that they are not part of what the elements are doing.
In his speech, an elder statesman and a revered chieftain of Uzo-Uwani LGA, Chief Maxi Ukuta, described Governor Ugwuanyi as “a worthy son,” and applauded him for carefully giving the people of Enugu State, Peter Mbah to succeed him as governor.
The elder statesman lauded Governor Ugwuanyi for the pressure and suffering he passed through to make Enugu an oil producing state, stating that the governor, having done so and also established the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) Igbo-Eno and opened up the rural areas which “no governor had opened up our rural areas the way you have done” has written his name in gold in the history of Nsukka zone in particular and Enugu State in general.