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| Gov. Dave Umahi |
Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, on Wednesday, backed President Muhammadu Buhari’s move to fight corruption, saying that is what the nation needs currently.
Umahi made his position known in an interview with State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting he had with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor said without fighting corruption, Nigeria would never grow.
The Peoples Democratic Party governor also said it was wrong to assume that he was planning to defect to the All Progressives Congress, saying he is still very happy being in the PDP.
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Umahi said, “That (that I may be planning to dump PDP) is not correct. We have to understand what opposition is.
“When the President comes out to fight corruption, why should we oppose that? It is a very good job and that is what the nation needs.
“Without fighting corruption, there is no way this country can grow. So, we support the President because it is a very good policy.
“I support him personally because I am doing the same thing in Ebonyi State. I share the same character with him fighting corruption, and that does not amount to cross carpeting. I am still very happy being in PDP.”
Umahi said he decided to visit the President to discuss the bad conditions of some Federal Government roads in his state.
He said the roads lead to the sites of some natural resources and that investors had already expressed interest in them.
He said they however could not access the sites until the roads were fixed.
The governor said, “Ebonyi State has solutions to the problems in the nation, in the area of agriculture, mineral resources like cement, lead, zinc, copper and coal. We also have a large deposit of salt.
“A lot of investors, when they heard of the patronage that the President intends to give to local production of these items, they besieged Ebonyi State, because they want to invest in these areas.
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“We have issues, the roads leading to these sites are federal roads, they are very difficult to access. So I came to ask Mr.President for two things.
“One, some banks are willing to lend money to Ebonyi State to construct these roads and they want assurance from the Federal Government that when they lend us money to construct these roads, the Federal Government will reimburse them.
“Two, there are some people or companies that want to do Public-Private Partnership with the state government on the development of these roads and they want a guarantee from the Federal Government that they will allow them to put toll gates so as to get back their funds.”
Umahi added that the said roads also lead to farmlands that support agriculture in the state.
He added that the state government needs more encouragement in odder to produce more rice from its five rice mills.
He however said Buhari was much interested in the subject matter.
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