Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, yesterday, asked the people of the South East to work with APC and vote for him as he was ready to make the zone the industrial hub of the nation.
This is as he called former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar corrupt, claiming that the duo stole Nigeria blind.
Meanwhile major stakeholders of the party in Enugu stayed away from the Okpara Square, venue of the party’s presidential campaign in protest against alleged rot going on in the state chapter of the party.
The party leaders in the state including Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, former Senate President Chief Ken Nnamani, former Enugu state Governor Sullivan Chime, former Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh, former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, however recieved Tinubu and his entourage at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport to show their support for him.
Others leaders who were also absent from the rally were the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, the immediate past chairman of the party, Dr. Ben Nwoye and a presidential aide, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku.
Addressing newsmen at Chime’s Enugu residence after the presidential candidate moved to the rally venue, the leaders said their absence at the rally was to send a clear signal to the national leadership of the party that something urgently must be done to redeem the party in the state.
They blamed Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma for allegedly hijacking the party’s structure in Enugu State, thereby disorganizing it.
In their reaction to the develpoment, Chime, Nnamani and Odohwho said they were not privy to all the preparations and programme for the rally. They however described Tinubu as a good candidate, assuring that they would work for his victory in the election.
Howevever, Tinubu in his address took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his then Vice and presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He urged Nigerians to ignore the duo because they allegedly stole Nigeria’s money while in office.
He said: “They didn’t do it for 16 years, they chop your money, abuse themselves. You know whom I am talking about? OBJ and Atiku, when they finished chopping the money, they started abusing one another, ‘you took much’, ‘I took much,’ they danced naked in Wuse Market in Abuja. Don’t believe them anymore.”
Addressing party faithful and supporters at Okpara Square, Enugu, while on campaign to the state, Tinubu said:
“Together there is nothing that can stop us if we are determined to make this state, the East, the regional business hub of Nigeria, a manufacturing centre of Nigeria. Develop, don’t wait for the Whiteman to do this job for us, we are brilliant enough, we are great thinkers, we can fabricate, we can develop, we can mould, we can build it all. We can turn our coal to industry and talk about climate change, before then we will not die before climate changes. We will live and survive the climate itself.
“Our industry will be as industry, as long as Germany, Britain, and America in Pennsylvania, they are still using their coal to fire turban and generate electricity for their industry, we have right too to do so. Be bold Nigeria, wake up Africa, let’s use what we have. Let’s turn our coal to money, let’s turn our gas to money.
