Frontline gubernatorial aspirant in the 2019 Imo State governorship race, Sir Stanley Amuchie, has said that his experience in the financial sector especially the career success he attained in Zenith Bank, would come in handy if he is given the mandate to be governor of Imo State in 2019.

Sir Stanley said this on Friday when he featured on the Face2Face platform of the Correspondents Chapel of the Imo State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

“As a successful banker who invested over 18 years of service in the Zenith Bank, helped to raise its fortunes from a mere N20 million to N5 trillion, I am not new to financial management. I will therefore bring my wealth of experience to bear in governance if given the opportunity to serve,” he said.

He added that his main mission in the race for the governorship position in Imo State is to reposition the state for better service delivery and development.

He said that he would do this through effective financial management and prudent and judicious utilisation of available resources as the only panacea to repositioning the state.

Amuchie, who is among the governorship aspirants under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said that with a first class honours degree in Industrial Chemistry and having made a mark in the banking industry, he was at a vantage position to rescue the state from the its current economic crisis if elected governor next year.

He said that what Imo State is currently lacking is leadership, stressing that as a financial guru, he will raise the internally-generated revenue of the state and make the state rely less on federal allocation.

Amuchie, who is the founder of a non-governmental organisation, the Good Light Foundation, assured that as governor he would focus primarily on agriculture, health care delivery services, qualitative education, industrialisation and provision of maximum security.

He also promised to revive all ailing industries established by the first civilian governor of old Imo State, the late Chief Sam Mbakwe, and accelerate environmental sanitation in the state.

“Without sounding immodest, I make bold to state that I have all it takes to move Imo forward. I am coming with the fear of God and as one who is already comfortable in life, I have decided to take the risk and to make personal sacrifice in the interest of our state and this is why I am in the race.”

Amuchie dismissed insinuations in some quarters that he is being drafted into the gubernatorial race by Governor Rochas Okorocha, stressing that his decision to run was entirely personal as he never had any decision or contact with the governor to this effect.

He said: “It is a total fallacy for somebody to say that I am being sponsored by the governor. In any case he is in one party and I am in another and everybody knows who his governorship candidate is, which he has been pursing with all vigour and passion. So how can he be engaged in this project and at the same time sponsoring another person. This is just a cheap political blackmail by those who are afraid of my rising profile and popularity in the party.”

Amuchie said that he had not met Okorocha one on one, adding that the closest he could get to the governor was that Zenith Bank has a customer relationship with Imo State Government, which is a normal banking practice.

While expressing optimism that he would clinch the party’s ticket by divine grace, Amuchie made it clear that he was not bothered by the large number of aspirants in the party competing with him, stressing that whoever wins would enjoy the cooperation of others.