Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State on Saturday, March 11, 2023, approved the immediate removal of the state Commissioner for Labour and Productivity, Chief Ford Ozumba.
The removal was contained in a statement issued on Saturday in Owerri by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Declan Emelumba.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that no reason was given for the removal of the commissioner.
Ozumba was also directed to hand over to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry with immediate effect.
Recall that Public sector workers in the state, under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, have embarked on industrial action on March 8 over alleged interference in the election of new state executives of the union.
‘2023 election will prove if Imo people accept APC’ – Gov Uzodinma
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has insisted that next year’s general election would determine whether the people of his state accepted him.
Uzodinma said this while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
He noted that his responsibility is to convince the people of Imo to vote for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, during the 2023 general elections.
“I belong to a political party. I have the responsibility to convince my people that my party has the best programmes for the country. I will convince voters,” Uzodimma said.
“Let me take the programmes of my political party to my people; let me market the programmes of my political party to my people.
“Let the election come, let my people vote. Then, the outcome of the election will determine whether they accepted my party or my candidate.
“The presidential election is an election for a Nigerian President, not an Igbo President…Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the candidate of APC to be President of Nigeria, not President of Igbo, or Yoruba or Hausa,” he added.
In the race which some analysts have described as a three-horse contest, is Tinubu; Obi; as well as Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar, who was Nigeria’s Vice-President between 1999 and 2007.
2023: ‘Any reasonable person in Imo State will vote for APC’ – Gov Uzodinma
Ahead of the 2023 general election, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, on Tuesday, August 16, 2022, said that he doesn’t want to join issue with the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, insisting that his business is to market the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the South East.
Uzodinma stated this during an interview with Channels TV’s Politics Today.
He noted that there are many loyal members of the APC in the South East who are ‘obedient’ to the party.
Uzodinma said, “I am a politician and my party is APC and I have my candidate in the party. And I know we are consulting and speaking to our people to vote for our candidate.
“I am concerned with campaigning for my party. I don’t want to join issues with Peter Obi, whom you know is not a member of my party. But I know members of APC are obedient to APC.”
The governor added, “I am very confident that the reasonable minds in Imo State will vote for my party. In 2021, I came here as a governor, 99% of our major roads were not passable. Today the major economic roads in Imo State have been managed in a very first-class manner that even the opposition party members are commending my effort.
“From 1999 to date, the members of Imo House of Assembly have no place in the state to sit. They were attached to one local government secretariat here in Owerri. The Imo House of Assembly building that was abandoned for many years has just been rehabilitated.”
