From Chuks Moses, Awka
Constituents of the seven council areas constituting Senator Stella Oduah’s Anambra North senatorial district have threatened to submit a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission( INEC) to set in motion process for her immediate recall.
The distinguished Senator was roundly accused of “inaccessibility, poor and abysmal representation at the National Assembly”.
In a statement, the Chairman of the Ward Campaign Managers of the seven councils, Chief Fabian Ohananya, on behalf of the group said they might be forced to carry their protest to INEC Headquarters, Abuja to submit a petition for the Senator’s recall immediately the current Coronavirus pandemic issues settle.
But the former Coordinator of
Neighbour 2 Neighbour group, Ikenna Uyanneh, who claims he and his group co-ordinated Odiah’s campaign, has come out in staunch support of her, insisting she remains the best from the area.
He dismissed the petitioners as fakes who were not there when Oduah was been campaigned.
But Ohanaya alleged in the statement, “the Senator does not remember her constituents again now. But during election, she will come with ‘Greek gifts’ to deceive the people.
“All the stakeholders and managers will go to Abuja to ask INEC to choose a day to conduct recall process for Senator Stella Oduah after which we will collect the required signatures for her immediate recall.
“INEC should set machinery in motion for her recall. We are not deterred by her threats of arrest. We are waiting for her police. But we are surprised that Oduah who claims to be a democrat is threatening his election workers with arrest for voicing their frustrations. We do not blame her. She is enjoying democracy which some Nigerians gave their lives to entrench.
”During one of the visits to her ancestral home in 2014 by PDP members she admonished PDP members whom she claimed wore tattered shoes and shirts that if elected, she will make sure that they start wearing better ones. However, upon her election victory uptil now she has not fullfiled her promises nor remembered these PDP members.”
The statement further disclosed that “even during this coronavirus pandemic ,she only distributed ordinary face masks without any palliative care for the 7 local government areas.
Describing Oduah as a paper-weight senator, they pointed out that rather than address litany of nagging issues affecting them, she allegedly mobilized her social media e-rats to malign them claiming that the Ward Campaign Managers demanded certain amount of money from her which she declined. They however requested her to come open and clear with the amount so demanded and those who did that.
The Ward officials disclosed that the senator should settle and compensate them for working hard to deliver her in 2015 and 2019 senatorial polls in the area.
They also expressed displeasure that true to her character of “use and dump”she jettisoned them and started recruiting new set of people across political parties to work for her in 2021 upcoming general elections.
“It is also on record that her ancentral house is the only mordern house stationed within her community while the other houses were made of mud and an inhabitable materials and structures.
”She has remained inaccessible. She doesn’t pick nor return calls including text messages to her telephone lines. She has remained unreachable to her PDP faithfuls and party members. It’s such that one must pass three different gates before you could be allowed to see her at the discretion of the security men at her gate”.
Senator Oduah represents Ogbaru, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Anambra East, Anambra West, Oyi and Ayamelum council areas in the Senate.
Uyanneh, however, stated his position for Oduah, in a statement: “To set the records straight and disabuse the minds of the general public against the antics of some characters currently leveling baseless accusations in the media, I, Ikenna Uyanneh, wish to put these down for posterity.
“That I coordinated all the grassroot programmes and structures for the Senator Princess Stella Oduah 2019 re-election into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That I coordinated these structures through the Neighbour 2 Neighbour platforms in Anambra North.
“That these platforms were coordinated through the various communities and wards and they were all inaugurated before the election.
“The names and data of all persons that worked in the various communities for the re-election of Senator Princess Stella Oduah are on record; I am in constant touch with them, so also is Senator Princess Stella Oduah whom Ndi Anambra North voted massively for they believed in her capacity and political sagacity.
“Most eligible voters in Anambra North massively voted for Senator Princess Stella Oduah’s re-election in 2019 because of her massive infrastructural developmental projects, skill acquisition programmes and other special programmes like empowerment for widows, youth, the elderly, the religious organizations etc that earned her the term, “The Empowerment Specialist of Anambra North”.
“After the 2019 general election, some faceless persons put across a call to the Senator and I claiming to have worked for the her as ward managers.
“These group of persons are unknown to the Senator and I did not work for the re-election of the Senator before, during and after election. There is no group like that.
“These same persons have kept calling Senator Oduah, asking for money and seeking to publicly blackmail her by publishing wild claims and threats in the media in the unconscionable hopes that our senator will be coerced to give them money.
“The public should take note that these characters are fraudulent, self seeking and unknown faces who are trying hard to destroy the hard earned reputation of the most Distinguished Senator Stella Oduah.
“These tricksters are hereby warned to desist forthwith from this dubious act as any further calls to the senator, myself and/or any other action by them will be addressed by the law enforcement agencies and dealt with according to law.
“It is on record that Distinguished Senator Princess Stella Oduah is a law abiding and peaceful citizen of Nigeria and she is too preoccupied with the business of lawmaking and thoughts on how to make Anambra North better to be engaged in their mindless propaganda antics.
“We are a strong political family and our vision remains Human Capital Development.
“It is about Humanity and giving back to society is our greatest passion.”