Labour Party berates Obiano for scrapping pilgrims’ sponsorship

The  Anambra State chapter of the Labour Party has condemned the stoppage of sponsorship of pilgrims to Jerusalem by the Governor Willie Obiano-led administration.

Obiano had, last week, announced that the state government would no longer sponsor pilgrims to the Holy Land as a measure to cut down the cost of governance.

The LP in a press conference on Saturday in Awka, the state capital, by its state chairman, Comrade Luke Ezeanokwasa, and other executive members of the party, however, described the governor’s pronouncement as hypocritical and misplaced.

The party maintained that the Obiano administration was spending more on the things that were not beneficial to the people of the state.

It said pilgrimage to the holy land was key in the lives of Christians, especially at a time of moral decadence such as the society was currently witnessing.

LP noted that to deny the people of such privilege amounted to being insensitive to the peoples needs.

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It said, “The Labour Party in Anambra State notes with  dismay the recent cancellation of government sponsorship of pilgrims in the state under the guise of cutting down the cost of governance.

“In as much as  the party welcomes the Willie Obiano’s sudden step towards reducing recurrent expenditures to the barest minimum, we have to draw the attention of the state government that this is a step forward in the wrong direction in that the state government, 10 months ago, used a whopping N600m  in decorating the cities of Awka,  Nnewi and Onitsha with Christmas  trees and light.

“The governor should have used the N600m, used in decorating the three cities in the state with Christmas trees and light, in completing many abandoned projects dotting the state.

The party pointed out that most projects initiated by the former governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, had been abandoned  by the incumbent regime.