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Otti’s govt, now a confused bunch – PDP *Says things falling apart
Unless the Abia State Government ends the gale of unrestrained sacking of top officials trained at huge costs to the state, and recalls those already shooed out, so long would it descend more into the morass of confusion, such as it has currently found itself, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned.
The main opposition in the state which lost power to the Labour Party (LP), after 24 years in the saddle, accused the government of Alex Otti, of incessant sacking of the good hands it met on ground, said this has resulted in a state of flux, accentuated by bad policies and inexperience of those it has recruited to work with.
Abraham Amah, Vice Chairman of the Abia chapter, of the party, while noting that the government had been groping in the dark and running in confusion like headless chicken, said this has accounted for its frenzied activities as seen in the further sacking of its appointees in the past two weeks, adding that running helter-skelter to redeem itself would come to naught without doing the right thing.
The party, which claimed to have burst the pipe of propaganda, the government had since embraced as its major working tool, maintained that its well-oiled media machinery, would not relent in puncturing all the lies being fed to the people of the state by painting the right picture of the state of affairs.
Citing the sacking of Kazie Uko, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor and Ngozi Okoronkwo, the Commissioner for Health, the party said, the government had introduced an air of uncertainty into its operations as nobody, was now no longer sure where and on whom the axe would fall next.
Informing that the PDP had it on good authority that many of the commissioners and other aides of the governor, were now considering throwing in the towel rather than being disgraced out of office were the fate of their former colleagues, Amah, who is also the spokesman of the PDP, said: “A fortnight ago, Alex Otti suspended the Commissioner for Health, Ngozi Okoronkwo, on allegations of massive corruption in the Ministry and placed her under investigation.
“When the PDP released a statement claiming the suspension was more than meets the eye, as she was not the only one that has exhibited many excesses in the Alex Otti team, his Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, overreached himself and bared open the mindset of Alex Otti and his methods to the public when he started their usual PDP-bashing press statement with a quote by the infamous Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist who helped Hitler to slaughter over six million Jews.
“The condemnations from well-meaning Nigerians that trailed Okey Kanu’s infamous quote are yet to settle, and Abians now know the copybook of Alex Otti and his operatives and the reason why he has been dealing ruthlessly with Abians, particularly the state finances, pensioners, sacked workers, and unpaid workers, in Hitler-style methods that brought the Third Reich to an inglorious end.
“Last week, Alex Otti sacked his Chief Press Secretary, Kazie Uko, and replaced him with one Ukoha Njoku Ukoha. We had expected that Ukoha N. Ukoha would understand that his duty is to tell Abians and Nigerians how his principal has delivered on his campaign promises and showcase his good works, if there are any, beyond re-asphalting roads done by the previous administration.”
Amah, while describing as unfortunate the hurry of Ukoha to please his boss, instead of heeding good advice, noted that this had led him to make the same error of his predecessor as could be gleaned in “his first misstep in his first outing by continuing with the deja vu bashing of the PDP, which earned his principal the bad reputation he was called to come and clean up.
“Our sympathy lies with the new CPS Ukoha because his fall would be more calamitous than that of his predecessor since he has failed to learn that his job is not to profile the PDP wrongly. As the fire in the Alex Otti media and propaganda team raged, the axe fell on Mrs Joy Maduka, former Head of Service, whom Alex Otti bypassed due process and promoted ahead of her superiors, as she was summarily dismissed and asked to proceed on compulsory retirement.
“Having sacked all the senior directors and permanent secretaries who were trained with state resources prematurely and out of an alleged insensitive hatred for the PDP, Otti is currently allegedly grappling with a shortage of trained manpower with whom to govern without the daily missteps that put him and his government into ridicule.
“It was the same confusion and lack of direction that caused the governor’s Chief Security Officer, CSO, to summon civil servants who had not been verified to his office, in utter defiance of Abia State Civil Rule, CS Rule 04102, which empowers only the Civil Service Commission to exercise disciplinary control over Abia civil servants. Such autocratic disposition reflects the character of the governor, which his Information Commissioner and Chief Press Secretary unknowingly pushed out to the public by endorsing the Joseph Goebbels quote time after time, even when they knew Abians would not accept such infamy.
“Presently, Alex Otti’s house is falling apart, and we advise him to come down from his high horse, swallow his pride, and recall those he sacked ignominiously so that they will help him in the good governance and administration of Abia State before the roof finally collapses on his head. The people he sacked were not Okezie Ikpeazu loyalists, not PDP members, but Abia civil servants, who ordinarily must be loyal to any government in power, as they are loyal to him now. No time is too late to do the right thing.”
Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, his predecessor and all members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, on Wednesday emptied into the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending months of speculations about the political development in the oil-rich state.
James Manager, Senator formerly representing Delta South at the National Assembly, who announced the move in Asaba, the state capital, shortly after a meeting that lasted over six hours at Government House, Asaba, said the state could not afford to allow itself drift away.
“All PDP members in the state, including the governor, former Governor Okowa, the Speaker, the state party chairman, all the local government chairmen and others, have agreed to move to the APC. We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat,” he said.
Aniagwu Charles, Delta State Commissioner for Information, who confirmed the development, said the defection, was a collective decision of Delta PDP leaders and stakeholders, adding: “There is a need for us to adjust our drinking patterns. And in adjusting that drinking pattern, we needed to make a decision that would further help to cement the development in our state, to build the court of law that has existed in our state, to further advance the cause of security and the welfare of our people, and, to a large extent, ensure that development in Delta is not truncated.
“In taking that decision, we concluded that leaving the PDP was very necessary for us to be able to collaborate and build a state that every Deltan will be proud of. We believe that what is happening, and the state of the PDP, is akin to that palm wine whose taste has changed — and there was a need for us to change the drinking party. By the grace of God, on Monday next week, we will be able to make a very big statement confirming that we are moving into the APC.”
Agbede community in Etsako West local government area of Edo State, rose in protests on Wednesday, complaining of continued kidnapping and killing by Fulani herdsmen, who they say have taken over their bushes and those of the surrounding neighbours.
Accusing the alleged marauders of killing and maiming those who could not pay ransom, as well as raping women and dislodging farmers from their farmlands, the community, who took to the streets in demonstrations, lamented that help had refused to come from anywhere including security agencies.
Agbede, and surrounding villages, including Odighie, Egono and Awain, they said, had been under siege in the past two months while efforts to get the assistance of the police in the area had ended in futilities, accusing them of complicity, with senior police officers from the northern part of the country covering up the criminals.
“Farm destruction, killings, rapes, and kidnappings for ransom have become disturbingly common and the police, instead of protecting the communities, they seem to be aiding and abetting the Fulani herders against the aborigines.
“The DPO at the Agbede Police Station, the Police Area Command in Auchi, and the Zone Five Office in Benin are not helping matters as we are suspecting them to be backing the herders with lining orders which is now creating fear amongst the people over their genuine protection and safety.”
Vanguard quoted a member of the community who did not want his name on the print as accusing the police of using blackmail, harassment, and detention to intimidate vigilantes and hunters who dare to challenge the Fulani invaders, while forcing the locals to sign undertakings not to confront the herders.
Still maintaining the allegation, he also claimed that those arrested in connection with the atrocities were usually promptly released within a few hours of arrest, adding: “Mamudu Momoh was attacked on his farm after he met some herdsmen taking over the farms, uprooting his cassava to feed their cows and in the process, he was attacked and injured.
“He went to the Agbede Police Division to report the case. The case was later turned against him, he was arrested and taken to Zone 5, where he was detained, and the community spent a lot of money to secure his release.
“There is another farmer in the community, Idris, who has been kidnapped by the herdsmen for over a month now and ransom has been paid, the man is yet to be released up till today. We are asking the inspector general of police to withdraw the DPO of the Agbede Police division who is a Northerner without which the Agbede community will never know peace in the hands of the herdsmen who are everywhere in our bush claiming to be hunters.
However Moses Yamu, Chief Superintendent of Police, and spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, was quoted as debunking the allegations, saying that the officers and men of Agbede Police division have been working round the clock to deal with the herdsmen situation in the area.
Narrating how the police from the division, with a backup from Auchi Area command, had already arrested over 10 suspected kidnappers in that axis who were currently being investigated, he said the community were not fair to the police in their protest, especially to the zone 5 Command.
He was quoted as saying particularly that the protest coming less than two weeks after the Inspector General (AIG) in charge of the zone had just assumed duties, was not a good welcome package by the community for him, especially with the allegation of abetting the said crimes.
What Benue State needs now is to secure its boarders with its neighbours and to assist it in flush out Fulani herdsmen and bandits from the land they have taken over after chasing away the original owners, who are now in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) camps.
Hyacinth Alia, Governor of the state, declared this stance on Wednesday, while appearing as a guest on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Network.
The governor, who spoke on a range of issues regarding the attacks with close to 100 persons slaughtered by invading armed groups, he identified as Fulanis from foreign lands, Alia, a Reverend Father of the Catholic Church faith, rejected the idea of imposing state of emergency in the state, saying what the people of needed at the moment was help from the Federal Government.
Stating how he was able to contain the activities of the killers in the state from 17 to just six local government areas, he said his administration had the capability to end the killings, if only it could get the needed support to further deal with the situation.
He said: “What we need is emergency help for now. We need absolute support. The federal government is supported. They sent two armoured tanks that came in. Our situation had changed. We had a better narrative, but what we need to do is to get our people back home, to drive out the invaders, the armed invaders who have brought in people who do not even speak the Nigerian languages we speak. Let them move back to wherever they came from and allow us farmers to go back to our ancestral land. Calling for any emergency does not occur here.”
Dismissing the contention that the situation had overwhelmed him, he said his ability to scale down the spread of the attacks, was indicative that he had the capacity to tackle the incessant killings and destruction of properties in the state by killer herders, some of whom he believes are not Nigerians.
“We couldn’t have trimmed it from 17 local governments in the front lines of the attacks to nine and then now to six, which means we have the capability to do this, but we need help. And that is a fact,” he added.
BREAKING: Entire PDP structure in Delta empties into APC
Edo community in protest: Fulanis still killing, raping, destroying our farms
Benue: Alia wants Fulani chased out from seized land, rejects emergency rule
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