Build 2nd Niger Bridge with recovered loot, Okoye tells Buhari

Elder statesman and former Chairman of the old Onitsha Local Government Area, Dr. Michael Ozua Okoye, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to use the money recovered from the ongoing fight against corruption to construct the second Niger Bridge and fix bad roads across the country.

Okoye, a close ally of the late Biafra warlord, Odimegwu Ojukwu, who spoke with The AUTHORITY on Sunday, was Onitsha Local Government chairman on the platform of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1983 before it was split into three - Onitsha North, Onitsha South and Ogbaru councils.
He explained that giving attention to the long delayed second

 Niger Bridge and bad roads in the Southeast will assuage the feeling of marginalization the region nurses against the Buhari administration.
Okoye, a founding member of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and prime minister (Onowu) of Onitsha stressed that Nigerians would begin to appreciate the results of Buhari’s anti corruption crusade when they feel the impact of service delivery in areas like road, education, health and agriculture.
He noted that the issue of bad roads is giving people of the South¬East sleepless nights and therefore deserves government attention.
He observed that Nigerians were used to a system of seeing positive results of government action on their lives before showing appreciation, which is why they would continue to see Buhari’s anti-corruption battle as a media issue until the money recovered from looters are channeled to im¬prove infrastructure and institutions in the country.
He continued: “I follow the news all the time and if news I read in the national dailies on the fight against corruption, the Dasukigate and what have you, are anything to go by, then Buhari is doing well; but the point is that ordinary people like us are yet to feel the impact.
“During Obasanjo and Jonathan eras as presidents, we heard about recovery of Abacha loot, we heard that money was recovered from Swiss Government, but what did they do with it?
“Such money has to be accounted for as proof of effectiveness in government and that is why I have considered it appropriate enough to call on the Federal Government to invest the money recovered so far from Dasukigate and what have you on roads and the second Niger Bridge”.
On the call to arrest and probe former President Goodluck Jonathan by some Nigerians, the traditional Prime Minister said that it was not their duty to dictate to Buhari and anti-corruption agents who to arrest and who not to arrest.
He however dismissed the call for Jonathan’s arrest saying such proponents are praise-singers and sycophants who benefitted from the Jonathan-led administration but now wish to sing praises for Buhari with the aim of find-ing cheap ways to benefit from the present administration and warned the President to be wary of.