Abia State chapter of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has condemned Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s recent trips to the United States of America and Turkey, saying they are a waste of the people's scarce funds.
In a statement titled: “Ikpeazu’s bazaar in Turkey and the extravaganza in Connecticut, USA” and signed by the party's State Publicity Secretary, Comrade Madu Chikwe, APGA said the trips were not intended to achieve specific economic objectives.
The statement said there was no indication that the “double-barrel extravaganza to Turkey and the United States” brought any economic dividend to Abia.
The party challenged the claim by the state government that the governor met with the Secretary of State, Maryland while in the U.S. The claim, it said, could not be substantiated.
The party also questioned the rationale behind 29 “shoemakers” accompanying the governor on the trip to Turkey, saying if really they were shoemakers, one week training in Turkey would not change anything for them.
“We do not begrudge the good fortune of our brothers, the so-called 29 ‘wise shoemakers’, if really they are shoemakers that accompanied Ikpeazu to Turkey.
"How can the so-called 29 'shoemakers' learn in one week what will help them transform the entire A Line where shoemakers require more than any other thing, good working environment, standard structures, good road network and other social amenities that will help grow their businesses?
“All Progressives Grand Alliance, Abia chapter, is particularly pained at the engagement of lobbyist, Mr. Walter Corley to serve as a link between Abia State and foreign companies in the United States. It is our opinion that government should invest in infrastructure development rather than engage in such jamboree.”
Abia APGA said genuine trade delegations comprised industrialists and businessmen with capacity to invest and attract investments, insisting that Abia must move beyond primordial sentiments if it must lift itself from the terrible situation it said Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had led the state into over the years.