Secretary General of Abia Youth Assembly (AYA), Comr. Okechukwu Charles under the aegis of a pressure group of progressive youths in Abia State has condemned in very strong terms the attitude of the people of Abia North Senatorial zone who attempted to scuttle the zoning arrangement put in place in the state by the PDP leadership which ceded the Governorship position to Abia South Senatorial zone with Ukwa West, Ukwa East, Ugwuagbo, Aba North, Abia South and Obingwa LGAs, as catchment areas.
In a release which he made available to newsmen in Umuahia , Comr. Okechukwu Charles who is also the National Coordinator, Project 2015 Door-2-Door Transformation for Good Governance in Abia State, regretted the destabilizing roles played by PDP leaders in Abia North which nearly cost or robed the state an opportunity to produce a Governor of Ukwa/ Ngwa extraction land for the first time since the creation of Abia State. He explained that with the voting pattern demonstrated by the people of Abia North who voted overwhelmingly for the APGA candidate, Dr. Alex, Otti, it is true as speculated that Otti is of the Arochukwu origin and extraction. He therefore cautioned a few political leaders and black legs in the area, who though claim to be loyal PDP Chieftains, but did everything to ruin the chances of victory of the party at the last Governorship election. Such attitude, he reiterated, is against the spirit of Equity, justice and fair play bequeathed to the state by the fore and founding fathers. He recalled that in 1991 when Abia was created out of Imo State through the efforts of the late Dr. Mike Okpara, late Dr. Mike Agbara and Chief Dr. Anagha Ezeikpe, among others, they insisted on the adoption of a charter of equity whereby each of the three component senatorial zones, will occupy the office of the Executive Governor of Abia State one after the order and that the office should rotate among them so as to allow development to spread to all the nooks and crannies of the state. He complained that it was unfair for Abia North Senatorial zone which produced a Governor in the person of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu for 8 years, not to see any merit in an effort to ensure that the people of Ukwa/Ngwa land or Abia South Senatorial zone which are essentially the geese that lay the golden eggs and landlords of the commercial nerve centre of the East, were consoled for the first time. He observed that despite coming from Arochukwu as reported, Dr. Alex Otti was so naive to have picked as a running mate, a daughter of the same Arochukwu but married to an Ohafia man, one Mr. Emeh in the former Arochukwu/Ohafia LGA.
He stated that the attitude of Dr. Alex Otti has clearly demonstrated that he is an arrogant and inconsiderate politician who was only desperate to actualize his ambition at all cost without consideration for others. Continuing, Comr. Okechukwu Charles appealed to the Governor-elect Dr. Okezie Victor Chibuikem Ikpeazu, not to be distracted by the obvious act of betrayal as allegedly and perpetrated by the people of Abia North and other PDP leaders but to remain focused in his vision to transform Aba, the Enyimba City to an international status. Comr. Okechukwu Charles then urged all Abians to join hands with and support the new Governor-Elect, so as to realize his dreams of a greater Abia.
It was his advice that all aggrieved persons including Dr.Alex Otti, should now pocket their grievances and support Dr. Okezie Victor Chibuikem Ikpeazu, to move Abia State forward rather than drag the state backwards after a bitter fought war of attrition and personality clashes which did no one any good throughout the election. Speaking further he argued that if actually the need for an Ukwa/Ngwa man to be elected Executive was a priority Governor in the first instance, then such dream has been accomplished in Dr. Victor Okezie Chibukem Ikpeazu who he described as a son of the soil, which emergence is enough to assuage the frayed nerves of other ambitious Ngwa politicians.