The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday evening, returned to Abuja from Imo State where he inaugurated several infrastructural projects completed by the Hope Uzodinma administration.
Buhari’s chopper arrived at the Villa premises at about 05:32 pm Tuesday.
Hours earlier, the President inaugurated the rebuilt state House of Assembly complex, the first phase of the Owerri-Okigwe Road and the Owerri-Orlu Road, according to the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba.
Tuesday’s visit comes about one year after he launched several projects and held a town hall meeting with Igbo leaders in Imo State.
The President arrived at the Sam Mbakwe Cargo Airport at exactly 11 am on Tuesday and was received by Governor Uzodimma and other senior state government officials.
However, Buhari’s visit has not been free of controversies.
The Imo State Government and the state chapter of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, engaged in a heated verbal exchange over the projects to be inaugurated.
In a statement issued on Monday by its spokesperson, Collins Opurozor, the Imo State PDP alleged that Governor Uzodimma was luring Buhari to the state to inaugurate “uncompleted projects.”
It argued that the state assembly complex was built over three decades ago by the Sam Mbakwe administration and not Uzodinma, who had put the state “in a financial mess.”
“Our party, therefore, condemns the move to bring the President to Imo State to re-inauguration a 30-year-old repainted complex and the uncompleted Owerri-Okigwe Road. The President should not bow to self-serving pressures from Uzodimma to lend his exalted office for such a caricature,” the PDP said.
But the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Print Media, Modestus Nwamkpa, argued that Uzodimma was building projects that the PDP-led past administrations abandoned for over 10 years.
