An Ika son, Mr. Joe Acha has of recent aired his view about the current battle of who to represent the Ika people in the Federal House of Representatives come 2019. According to him, the incumbent has not done well to score a pass. He said,
“The present representative has performed below expectation. He was not able to attract Federal presence to the constituency he was supposed to represent. It seems as if the man did not understand that there are people he is representing. I will think his eight years stay in office is fruitless”.
Mr. Acha is therefore of the opinion that a capable hand is for this reason needed for this position.
According to him, the capable hand among the contestants is Dr. Philip Okwuada following his profile.
“The man has proven that he has managerial acumen. He will be able to bring in rural business to the locality. He is a well-known agriculturist. He has won national awards. He has poultry farms and has employed over two thousand persons nationwide. Any man who could do that, I think he will be able to represent his people effectively,” he asserted.
Lambasting the incumbent, Mr. Acha said that it is only his ‘Apostles’ who are dependent on him for financial gain, are the ones singing his praise, and propagating works he never did.
“His apostles would of course have something to say, most of them depend on him. I know it is not good to say ill about somebody, but the fact remains that the man is dressed on borrowed robes. The only remarkable thing he has done so far is bringing two or three health workers occasionally in his so-called eye clinic, where you have the aged queuing for hours in a struggle to get examined. What stops him from stationing an Optometrist here that will be working for at least fifteen days in a month to fully attend to the people? These will relief our people of stress”.
On the issue of which local government brings out the next representative, Mr. Acha opined that by fairness, it is the turn of Ika South. He said,
“Following equity and justice, it is the turn of the sister local government. It is clear that both local governments are the only local governments in Ika Federal Constituency. Therefore, it is unfair for just one local government to continue to produce candidates, neglecting the other. It should not be allowed. It is the turn of the people of Ika South.
On the 13th of March 2015, the people of Ika South while contributing to the election of the incumbent governor, were promised that come 2019, they would be the ones to produce the next members of Federal Representative for Ika Federal Constituency, as it is their turn. Anything other than that amounts to betrayal. Should the governor go back on his words, it would be a big blow to the unity of Ika Federal Constituency”.
Going further, he mentioned that during the election that brought Victor Nwokolo in, some people from the top were trying to impose Doris Uboh on the people. So, the people of Ika South unanimously voted for Victor Nwokolo who thought was from Ika North East and was equally coming out from Accord not PDP, the ruling party of the state.