Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to help Southeast tackle the erosion challenge.

Uzodimma spoke with State House Correspondents on Tuesday after a meeting with President Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

The governor lamented the level of degradation that erosion had inflicted on the region.

“I came to see Mr. President first to greet him and share some of the issues that are confronting my administration in Imo State. In specific terms the issue of erosion, the level of erosion in Imo State is alarming and I have taken time to explain to Mr. President and he has assured me that the federal government will intervene as soon as possible.

“I used the opportunity also to bring to his knowledge the development in the Southeast and that our people are grateful on the completion and opening of the Enugu Airport and we are also happy with the speed and the pace of work at the Second Niger Bridge and the various agric intervention programmes he brought to South East.

“And also used the same opportunity to ask for more because you know in this business, the more you get, you must ask for more. I am sure and I believe that Mr. President is committed towards alleviating some of the problems in the South East region and Imo in particular.

“If you recall in 1982 President Shagari visited Imo State of then and made a promise to correct Amucha erosion,that Amucha erosion has so degraded to the extent that it is now a death trap. Incidentally it is part of the area that the Imo State government is struggling now to get Julius Berger to dualise the road,” the governor said.

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He added: “I am sure that if the Federal Government intervenes and takes the erosion aspect of the road, it will be cheaper for Imo State and affordable for us to pay a contractor like Julius Berger to now concentrate on the road alone. So these are some of the things I brought to the knowledge of Mr. President and  I can assure you, in his usual magnanimous manner, he is committed because he has the listening ear.”

On the growing agitation for the Southeast to produce the next president, Uzodimma said the decision would be made by the party and not any tribe or section of the country.

“The emergence of presidential candidate will come on a party-by-party basis, not tribe-by-tribe basis. But if there are other internal factors that will form part of the considerations for parties taking a decision, of course, that will be entirely the job of the leadership of those political parties and I think that is the right thing to do,” he said.

Speaking on his relationship with his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, he said: “He is my brother, my very good brother, in whom I am well pleased. I have no issue with him, the only thing is that he is now the former governor and I am now the current governor. Once we understand that, we don’t have any issue.”

He explained that pensioners were not paid in the state because of documentation issues. He accused his opponents of sponsoring non-pensioners to act as such.

“But we have this experience of political opponents who hired those who are not pensioners to carry out protest and 15 or 20 of them have been remanded in prison custody, those that were caught with arms and ammunition. It is a criminal issue, they are not pensioners; those who were caught by Police that were remanded are not pensioners. Of course the matter is now in Court. But I can tell you if there is anybody from Imo State who says he is pensioner, tell him to give you his new ID card because we have a new ID card with biometrics.

“We have introduced Nips automation, once we have you BVN and Band details, you don’t need to go to anybody to ask for your pension. Only yesterday I received a team from the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Auditor General of the Federation who came for SFTAS inspection and they were marvelled with the level of automation I have done within short period. What we are trying to do in Imo State now is e-governance so that we can make life easier for our people,” he said.