The traditional ruler of Oduma Achara Autonomous community in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Murphy Chukwu has congratulated Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on his re-election.
Chukwu, who described the Governor as a visionary leader, said he had a passion for the people of Enugu State.
Igwe Chukwu stated that the re-election of Governor Ugwuanyi would further entrench and sustain the gains of Visit Every Community, VEC, project, which had started yielding positive results in so many communities of Enugu State.
The royal father gave the commendation during an accountability meeting he called at his palace, during which he rendered account to his people on how his community utilized the N5m (Five million naira given to his community under the VEC Projects initiative of the Enugu State Government.
He stated that upon the receipt of the said N5m from the State Government, a separate dedicated account was opened for the money, adding that a six-man committee across the villages in the community was immediately set up and inaugurated for the purposes of buying poles, armoured cables and wires for the electrification of the community as agreed at their general meeting.
Igwe Chukwu explained further that for the 17 years he was on the throne, he had personally built and attracted life-touching projects for his community.
He stated further that the accountability forum was necessitated by his desire “to clear the air on the malicious, misleading and false information placed on the social media by some unscrupulous persons in the community that he and the Town Union Executive had embezzled N5m of the VEC initiative of the State Government.”
Igwe Chukwu, however, enjoined all members of the community to embrace unity and peaceful co-existence as a sine qua non for development, adding that he had no malice towards anybody since God is the best judge of all mortals.
Also speaking at the forum, the President General of Oduma Achara Town Union, Comrade Pius Ani maintained that the allegations against the Igwe and the Town Union was baseless.
He added that the perpetrators of the falsehood had never attended the meetings of the community “where accounts on the N5m was rendered to satisfaction and admiration of all and sundry.”
He wondered “how someone who do not attend meetings of the community could wake up to raise issues or make such wild and false allegations against the report of the project committee, which was adjudged to be transparent.”
On the synergy between the Igwe-in-Council and the Town Union Executive, Comrade explained that since their election last year, “there has been good understanding and unity between the Igwe and the Town Union under his watch,” adding that he had travelled to all parts of the country, to drum support on the need for all hands to be on deck for the development of their community.
On how the N5m was spent, the head of the project on the electrification project Hon. Sergius Njoku Ifeanyi Chukwu said that the N5m was judiciously spent on the electrification project, which was the mandate given to his committee.
He explained further that before a kobo was spent, the whole community at a general meeting agreed and identified electricity as the most pressing need of the community, stating further that his committee had rendered its account on how much that was spent as at 31st December, 2018.
On the choice of contractor who executed the project, Hon. Njoku explained that of the three contractors recommended by his committee, the one chosen for the project is an indigene of the community.
