RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU)says it has tipped Rt.Hon.Dr.Paschal Arinzechukwu Agbodike for the Senate out of the battalions of contestants jostling for the Anambra-South senatorial seat.
ASATU also conferred Eminent Personality award on Paschal Agbodike for his generosity and monumental contributions to the growth and advancement of ASATU at the state level and in Anambra-South senatorial district.
Speaking on why ASATU Anambra-South is supporting as well as rooting seriously for the victory of Rt.Hon.Dr.Paschal Arinzechukwu Agbodike, former President-General of Osumoghu town in Ihiala Local Government Area and currently the zonal leader of ASATU Anambra-South senatorial zone, Ichie Sir Chika Dennis Muomaife, said Paschal Agbodike is the patron and pillar of ASATU Anambra-South and has been very supportive financially and otherwise to the activities of ASATU in the south senatorial zone.
Muomaife said Paschal Agbodike will soon represent Anambra-South at the Senate because he is very accessible and responds to phone calls at all times, adding that Anambra-South needs somebody that would be part of them not somebody that would be far away from them.
The ASATU zonal leader described Paschal Agbodike as someone who will use his last kobo to work for his people as evident in the procurement of security vehicles for the 10 towns in Ihiala Local Government Area to intensify the fight against insecurity.
He said he was using the platform of the interview with HEADLINE NEWS to campaign for Paschal Agbodike and also urge the people of Anambra-South to send him to the Senate because he believes that the reward for good work is more work. That it is pertinent and of paramount importance that Agbodike should be given more work because he will deliver.
Muomaife maintained that ASATU saw many things in Paschal Agbodike before he was unanimously recommended for the award bestowed on him. He said Agbodike has ASATU in his mind and has helped many young graduates from Ihiala to get federal jobs, stressing that Agbodike is a dogged fighter.
Muomaife also pointed out that Paschal Agbodike who is currently representing Ihiala Federal Constituency at the Green Chambers is equally representing Nigeria at the ECOWAS parliament; that Anambra-South needs someone that would go to the Senate to move motions and create bills for the benefit and betterment of Anambra-South not someone who will go to Senate and start sleeping on duty. He said Paschal Agbodike is qualified all round for the Senate and that the award given to him by ASATU is an award well-deserved.
Meanwhile Hon. Chief Ikem Surplus Ewuzie who received the award on behalf of Paschal Agbodike, said Paschal Agbodike has been a grassroots development person impacting so positively in all the communities in Ihiala Local Government Area. Ewuzie noted that right from his sojourn at the Anambra State House of Assembly to his present status as the House of Representatives member representing Ihiala Federal Constituency, Paschal Agbodike has ensured that what is due to communities in Ihiala got to them.
Ewuzie said Paschal Agbodike is currently embarking on massive rural electrification project; installing street lights in virtually all the communities in Ihiala Local Government Area aside other rural empowerment programmes and projects he has executed in the communities in Ihiala federal constituency.
That in the area of security, Agbodike has been in the forefront of ensuring that insecurity becomes a thing of the past in Ihiala coupled with his interventions in infrastructure and other aspects of societal well-being, pointing out that those were some of the characteristics ASATU saw in him which made him eligible for the award.
On the other hand, the President-General of Mbosi community in Ihiala Local Government Area Pastor Azuka Okoli, said all awardees were properly debated and selected; that of all the Federal Lawmakers of Anambra extraction both past and present, only Rt. Hon. Dr. Paschal Arinzechukwu Agbodike was found worthy of the ASATU EMINENT PERSONALITY AWARD because of his consistency from 2015 till date.
Pastor Azuka Okoli said Paschal Agbodike has served as Deputy Majority Leader of the Anambra State House of Assembly from 2015 to 2019. He said Agbodike won his second term election and served as the Deputy Speaker of the 7th Legislature of Anambra State. According to him, as the Deputy Speaker of the 7th legislature, Agbodike was able to touch the lives of numerous people not just in Ihiala 2 state constituency where he represented in the state assembly but also the entire state.
Okoli said other considerations for the award bestowed on Agbodike was his support to ex-Governor Willie Obiano and presently Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo even when Paschal Agbodike is not serving in Anambra State but he is always around and available to give moral support to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo in his home state; a trait Pastor Azuka Okoli said other federal lawmakers of Anambra origin doesn't possess.
Azuka Okoli said another vital consideration ASATU made prior to the conferment of the award on Paschal Agbodike was his monumental interventions in Ihiala Local Government Area as he disclosed that Agbodike recently donated 10 American Spec Toyota Sienna Utility Vehicles to the 10 towns in Ihiala to help fight insecurity in the area coupled with other numerous interventions.
He said in spite of being a first time member in the Federal House of Representatives and coming from a minority party, Paschal Agbodike was elected to represent Nigeria at the ECOWAS parliament. That it takes knowledge and years of experience on legislative duties to fit into the workings of the National Assembly especially the upper chambers, stressing that legislative matters is not about being a business tycoon or philanthropist.
The Mbosi PG told HEADLINE NEWS that Paschal Agbodike single-handedly moved a motion and a bill for the creation of Southeast Development Commission until a colleague in the House supported him. He said that the commission has been created by the federal government and an indigene of Anambra State has been appointed the Managing Director to oversee the commission.
Okoli who stated categorically that if a wrong person replaced late Sen.Dr.Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah at the Senate on grounds of sentiments, then the remaining two years would be a colossal failure as he posited that if Paschal Agbodike was not at the National Assembly, the Southeast Development Commission wouldn't have been a reality and an Anambra indigene wouldn't have also been the commission's pioneer boss. He therefore added that ASATU Anambra-South has already endorsed and tipped Rt.Hon.Dr.Paschal Arinzechukwu Agbodike for Senate.
In his few remarks while presenting the award, the National President of ASATU Chief Barr. Titus Nnabuike Akpudo, said without mincing words that Paschal Agbodike has been very supportive to ASATU especially when ASATU had issues with the state government. Akpudo said ASATU really appreciated the role Agbodike played to ensure that the matter was resolved amicably without rancour; that it was on the basis of his involvement in ASATU affairs that he was being honoured.
Also a former National President of ASATU Chief Alex Onukwue, confirmed that Paschal Agbodike's generosity and altruistic nature knows no boundaries and that ASATU is using the award to encourage him to continue to contribute his quota to the development of humanity in general.
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