Political Stakeholders in Abia North said on Thursday that they are asking Senator Mao Ohuabunwa who represented the district in the 8th Senate to re-contest for the office in 2023 for effective representation.
According to them, the former Senator did so well as a Senator that his absence has affected the people of the area badly since he left that seat, adding that his reemergence will bring back lost glor of the Senatorial district.
Senator Ohuabunwa who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), sought re-election in 2019, lost to the incumbent Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Meanwhile, the stakeholders who addressed newsmen in Umuahia lamented the exit of Ohuabunwa at the Senate, saying that “the zone has gone voiceless since then”.
Immediate-past Secretary to Abia State Government, Dr. Eme Okoro, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, said the zone had slided into political darkness due to the absence of a vocal and vibrant parliamentarian like Ohuabunwa.
The stakeholders expressed disappointment at the quality of representation the district is currently getting, and vowed to compel Ohuabunwa to seek a return to the red chamber come 2023.
“We are pained that Abia North which was hitherto represented by the likes of Senator Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, and Senator Mao Ohuabunwa – men whose oratory prowess, intellectual capacity and legislative acumen resonated across Nigeria and beyond has suddenly become a laughing stock at the 9th Senate”, they lamented.
The stakeholders further said that but for the efforts of some House of Representatives members from the zone, “Abia North would have been completely on mute at the current National Assembly”.
They said that “the district does not need to be represented by somebody who will abandon his legislative duties only to be junketing around the country collecting chieftaincy titles and being turbaned nor one who is distracted by presidential ambition”.
“Abia North does not deserve to be represented by someone who will spend six months in prison custody while serving as a member of NASS. This is a collective insult on the zone.
“Anybody that has issues with EFCC should go and resolve with the anti graft agency first before going to represent Abia North”.
On why they are rooting for Ohuabunwa, the stakeholders said that his stay at the senate attracted verifiable projects across the zone besides having over 10 bills and motions to his credit in less than three years of his sojourn at the red chamber.
In a remark, former Commissioner for Transportation, Chief Mrs Nnenna Obewo, vowed to mobilise Abia North women to ensure the return of Senator Ohuabunwa.
Some of the stakeholders at the briefing were former Bende Council Chairman, Pastor Okechukwu Dike; his Arochukwu counterpart, Hon. Princely Ngunu; former Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, Hon. Orunta Amadi ( Isuikwuato); Hon. Charles Ike ( Umunneochi; Dr. Ndubuisi Eke; and Dr. Isaac Nkole.
Others were former PDP Chairman Isuikwuato LGA, Hon. Chinedu Igboko; SSA to the Governor, Hon. Propa Okoro; Chief Felix Ukpabi; Chief Monday Amah; and Chief Tom Ezeikpe.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
