Abia State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Abia State Government led by Governor Alex Otti of being confused and lacking proper administrative direction.
The PDP said that for the past two weeks, confusion has gripped the Otti administration, and it is currently running helter-skelter to patch its alleged propaganda and other pipes, which were burst by the superior PDP media machinery.
Elder Abraham Amah, Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary said that with the ongoing sacking of both the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor and the Commissioner for Health, an air of uncertainty has enveloped the entire operatives of Otti’s government because nobody knows where and on whom the axe will fall next.
He said that the PDP has reliable intelligence that many of Otti’s commissioners and aides are considering throwing in the towel before they are disgraced out of office as he did to their colleagues.
“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 said that it was unfortunate that instead of doing the suggestion above, Ukoha who was in a hurry to please his boss, made 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.”
Amah said that 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.
According to Amah, “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.”
He said that 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.
According to Amah, “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’s 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.”
