By Eddie Onuzuruike
The Nation on Monday June 30, 2016 featured a bitter protest and calumny from Alex Otti, former MD Diamond bank and an ill-fated gubernatorial attempted personality in Abia.
Otti as guaranteed by the constitution has a right to speak out and be heard but this freedom is equally subjected to the rights of other citizens where excesses will turn into assault, libel and sedition. His bitterness and calumny have gone beyond acceptable rule and tolerance. His barefaced lies are too many to be ignored. He is not the only one to lose in an electoral contest. Even in the race he ran, he was not the only one, at least Anyim Nyerere who ran on the platform of the ruling party, APC, is still alive, nursing his injuries and praying for a better day.
The luck we have in Abia State is that Otti lost; otherwise it would have been a story of division, disaffection and devastation. Otti in a press release wrote so many unprintable things and made unfounded allegations. One of the most ludicrous is that people were not paid salaries in Umuahia South because they voted against PDP. Who can believe this? This means that there are two pay sheets. One for PDP supporters and another for APGA.
That is by the way. The Abia State government has all it takes to put the facts straight and they have been doing so. Where I am concerned is on false allegations against Senator T. A. Orji and smearing his golden years of governance which Otti identified with until he lost the guber bid and skedaddled overnight to APGA.
I take serious exception to paragraph 9, 10, in the said publication where Otti made sweeping allegations. As he wrote, ‘unfortunately just the way it was seen during T.A. Orji’s dark days, the kidnapping and killings are being played down and given media blackout.’
In the following paragraph Otti continued. ‘Against injunctions of the scripture that a labourer deserves his wage; it is regrettable that Abia workers have continued to suffer the same injustice they suffered during the last PDP led administration as everything about that salary have been made to look like a slave master’s privilege that comes when he wishes.’
You can easily notice above the negative emphasis on the PDP last administration.
It is very unfortunate that Otti is a banker claiming a first class in the University but he has been unable to employ simple data that is primal in researches and dares decorum writing like one who has lost all hopes in life.
Nobody in Nigeria has been applauded like Senator Orji was done for dealing kidnapping a deadly blow. One of such persons is M. Dikko Abubakar, the IGP then who delivered in professional terms. In a widely quoted short take, ‘Stopping Kidnapping in Abia is a case study.’ There is no doubt that, His Excellency then, T. A. Orji grew grey hairs overnight, but he got out of the situation smoking, which led to chasing the kidnappers away and hewing down their kingpin, Osisikankwu. After these heroics, awards streamed in from far and wide. One good example is the National Council for peace and Unity, led by Mohamed Abba Gana who invested the Governor as National Ambassador for Peace.
You could recall that other strong deterrent steps were taken. An executive bill from the governor was promptly passed making kidnapping a capital offence. To manifest the importance, this early and definitive move so many years gone was just replicated in one of the Western States recently. It is on record that the use of motorcycles in commercial activities was banned in Umuahia and Aba to stem kidnapping among many punitive measures and grand assistance to the Police, Army, Civil Defence and others. The Commander of the Joint Task Force relocated from 82, Armed Division, Enugu to Aba, Marshalling Ohafia, Camps in Ngwa High School and Asa High School. And Otti claims that nothing was done just because of his envy for Victor Okezie Ikpeazu’s triumph and Otti’s inability to get enough votes and acceptance.
The other implication is that Otti is proverbially pointing one finger at others whereas the other four are at him. Otti was a core PDP member in Abia as he declared instantly the moment he left the bank. He fell over the Governor then for patronage. In one situation, he implored the Governor to attend his event in Isiala Ngwa South which the Governor obliged him. He was later to falsely claim that the Governor’s presence in his programme was a confirmation that he will succeed him. It is equally common secret that he desperately sought assistance from a known Abuja power bloc to pressure the Governor into handing over to him and even made a very desperate and compromising offer to Ochendo which was fiercely rejected. But today, Otti speaks ill of PDP and Ochendo he sought to succeed as if they have been enemies from Adam.
Until his migration to APGA, crushing other candidates like Reagan Ufomba and Ukaegbu, he hobnobbed with PDP. His entry into APGA is still of serious controversy as he is yet to normalise and vacate court orders in many assizes. Why should a man who wanted to be governor lace himself with so many yokes?
The Abia workers are there to give legitimacy to their rapport with Ochendo. It is equally on record that all Abia workers got a historic promotion to the next salary level and Abia paid the highest minimum wage till Ochendo left office. In this era, more permanent secretaries were appointed and special salary schemes were adopted, like the TSS and others. These officers- health workers and teachers are alive and can attest to these, but rather than verify, Otti will try to fabricate to curry favour or win sympathy.
As hinted above, military installations were updated at Ohafia, Ukwa, and a helipad built at Isuikwato to aid aerial operations. Ochendo’s diplomacy made it possible for President Jonathan to be on hand to commission the Ohafia Barracks personally in April 2011. Operational bases were enlarged and guest houses for senior officers are still there at Tom Ikoro drive. It will be highly unprofessional like Otti to reveal certain military installations done by Ochendo as doing so will be giving out strategic information.
In truth so many are of the opinion that those carrying out kidnapping in Abia are former Otti thugs who were dumped after many mind boggling promises of nonexistent positions.
Otti should beware of his utterances. Adducing the death of Senator Okorofor to be caused by lack of facilities in ABSUTH and lebelling Eze Nenu dead when he is still alive is the height of political recklessness and lack of human sympathy. He should wake up from his dream of being governor in Abia. I hope he has removed the coat of arms he placed on his table when he had the pyrrhic victory from the courts. In truth, we should thank God for Otti’s failed bid because Abia would have been bitterly divided and ethnic tension would have been at a breaking point. He still owes Abia one thing. Let him start with congratulating Ikpeazu who beat him silly in all the stages. There is an example already set by President Jonathan, let all of us adopt it as a political template.