The
Electrical Appliances Dealers Market Obosi played host to the campaign
train of Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh, the APGA candidate for Anambra Central
Senatorial District.
In
his welcome address, the President-General of Southeast Traders
Association extolled the virtues of Chief Umeh. He regaled the people
with the story of the exploits of Chief Umeh at the National Confab and
affirmed the overwhelming support of Anambra Traders for the candidacy
of Chief Umeh.
He stated emphatically that the Senate is for those who have the clout to speak up for Igbo interests at the National Assembly.
In
his address, Chief Umeh explained in detail, the poor condition of the
Igbo nation in the scheme of things in Nigeria. He lamented that Igbo
traders suffer a lot in the hands of the men of the Federal Operations
Unit of the Nigerian Customs Service.
Ohamadike
pointed out that all over the world, customs men stay at the borders
and at the ports. He described as unwholesome, the situation where the
customs will clear a container for delivery at the ports only to turn
around and mount road blocks at Ore and Benin to extort Southeasters
over the same containers they have cleared at the ports.
"If there was something wrong with the container, why did they clear it at the wharf?" he queried.
Chief
Victor Umeh vowed to sponsor a bill that will permanently get the
customs out of the roads as soon as he gets to the Senate. Among other
things Chief Umeh explained he is going to the Senate to ensure the full
implementations of the resolutions of the National Confab.
He
recalled that he had successfully agitated for the immediate creation
of an additional state in the Southeast. He recalled that he
successfully agitated for the abolition of the unjust practice of
sharing federal revenue on the basis of number of local governments; a
practice that put the Southeast in serious disadvantage, bearing in mind
that while the entire Southeast has just 95 local governments, Kano and
Jigawa states alone have over 150 local governments. Umeh ensured that
the Confab restrict the distribution of federal revenues among states
only.
Umeh
further explained to the traders that he equally fought against the
distribution of 5% of federal revenues among Boko Haram affected states
when the Southeast was paid nothing after the Civil War.
