By Collins Ughalaa KSC
Since our exposure of the lies peddled by the PDP in Imo State yesterday, the gates of the party have been forced open. To defend their hypocrisy and barefaced lies they resorted to cooking up more lies.
Ihedioha did not attract any funds from his numerous trips abroad. You cannot put something on nothing. It will collapse. Imo State must count one before counting two.
The claim that Ihedioha attracted billions of Naira for quality control of agricultural produce in the State is spurious. You cannot attract funds overseas to control the quality of what does not exist, what you did not produce.
It beats the imagination that the PDP could claim that the former Governor attracted over N6bn for quality control of agricultural products when there was no produce in the first place. Don’t take my word for it. Ask yourself: where are the produce? You have to produce before you control the quality.
That is why Governor Hope Uzodimma is different. He is interested in producing agricultural produce.
We reiterate that GOVERNOR UZODIMMA IS MORE INTERESTED IN QUALITY PRODUCTION, NOT QUALITY CONTROL OF NON-EXISTENT PRODUCTS
According to Richard Mark Mbaram, the Technical Adviser to the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Oversight Officer for the Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone Project, who led the second delegation of the African Developement Bank (AfDB) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) tours of Imo State: “We are here on account of the massive political goodwill of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma who has masterfully navigated the issues”
He said: “My name is Richard Mark Mbaram. I am the Technical Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Oversight Officer for the Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone Project.
“We are visiting Imo State for a key project. This is a key project that the Federal Government is getting resources from the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
“It is focused with assisting existing commercial/industrial agro industries in selected states to better cope with the challenges of infrastructural deficit in the country in such a way as to make them begin to break even and also impact the economy of the country using some selected model States. Imo State is one of them.
“The process leading up to this point has been very challenging and competitive.
However, Imo state on account of the massive political goodwill of the Governor, His Excellency Senator Hope Uzodimma, who has been able to masterfully navigate the issues and realities around the competitiveness has brought the project to Imo State.
The process that we have here is the assessment of the state’s competencies and justifying the project.
“Imo State has been able to scale through the matrixes, one of which is existing brownfields. We have some brownfields in the state such as the Victoria farms, and Adapalm. The site in Okigwe is a brownfield in quote, because the Governor had been able to get the approval of the President for funding of that activity. Since the money is sitting at ecological fund, we have now dedicated or structurally positioned that project as the hub of the agric-processing zone program knowing fully well that we are going to be able to build it given the availability of resources.
“But in doing that the best practice, the best expectations around that project had to be sort, and that is why the African Development Bank’s Agricultural and Agro Industrial Directorate sent us as experts in livestocks, processing zones, and administration etc to come here.
“That team had arrived last week. It had Fernando Lado and Yusuf Kabore. Yusuf Kobore is the chief livestock officer of the African Development Bank, while Fernando Lado is the adviser on livestock industrialisation.
“They have worked with the Imo State government team and the lead consultant to evolve a clear plan of building the livestock agric industrial processing Zone and the hub. After the visit this present team is here to look at the environmental social and climate change impact around the project.
“This site where we are now in Owerri West Local Government is going to be providing feedstocks. They will be producing maize, cassava and most likely soya.
“Imo State from what my colleagues have said is pretty well positioned given the narrative that has been laid out around the way the agric industrial processing zone is going to run plus the industrialisation plans of His Excellency. Imo is looking pretty. Infact it is very well positioned”.
