The Abia State government has revealed that a priest of the Anglican Diocese of Aba was behind the attack of the government through the communiqué issued at the 3rd session of the church’s synod in Aba.
In a media statement issued on Saturday in Umuahia, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Alex Otti, Ferdinand Ekeoma, alleged that a priest who was a signatory to the communiqué of the 17th Synod of Aba Diocese of the church which called on Governor Otti to reverse the sack of the hurriedly employed civil servants by the last administration be reversed influenced the communiqué for personal reasons.
Recall that the Synod in its communiqué signed by the Bishop of Aba Diocese, Anglican Communion, Rev. Christian Ugwuzo, and the Clerical Synod Secretary, Venerable Innocent Ogbonna berated the state government for sacking the civil servants that were employed barely two months to the end of the last administration in the state.
Part of the church’s communiqué read:
“Given the station of Aba as an outstanding commercial nerve centre in the South East, the protracted dilapidation of most roads in the city strangulates business life, increases hardship in the land, stalls development, exposes the citizens to untold health hazards and scares away industrialists thus occasioning unemployment, armed robbery and all manner of insecurity in the town and its environs.
“The Synod urges the present government in Abia State to explore opportunities for development in such areas as building modular refineries in oil producing areas of the state, and establish air and sea ports,”
“The Synod therefore calls on all tiers of government to urgently declare a state of emergency on the road network in Abia, especially Port Harcourt, Ohanku, Obohia and other roads in Aba and its environs.”
The synod also advised Otti to engage in “promoting tourism and local industrialisation in order to boost the economy, create employment opportunities and generally improve the lives of Abians and other residents.”
However, reacting to the communiqué, the governor’s spokesman maintained that the communiqué was an ambush on the government and was issued in bad faith.
Part of the government’s reaction reads:
“The said signatory had made a request to the Governor to exclude and allow his daughter who was a beneficiary of the March 2023 fake employment carried out by the previous government, after it had lost election, to remain in the civil service.
“However, the governor turned down the request on the grounds that it will be unjust to exclude or recall one person out of the several people affected.
“The same signatory had also made two other futile requests to the Governor which included; to endorse and confirm a factional Chairman of NULGE in Abia against the will of majority of the union executives and members, and also to support the imposition of a certain traditional ruler as Chairman traditional rulers council.
“The governor turned down these requests because they were unhealthy and self serving..
“Having rightly expressed their opposition to that unjustifiable last minute employment sham, we are therefore surprised that the Anglican Synod turned around to disagree with the Alex Otti led-government over its decision to invalidate that act of deceit that was obviously a booby trap for the Otti government. This contradiction leaves many questions unanswered”
The government, meanwhile said that the Governor Alex Otti administration plans to create employment opportunities for the residents of the state but insisted that the “cleaning up the state’s civil service,” was in process.