Part 1.
The verdict of Abians on the 18th day of March, 2023 was so loud and resounding that it echoed even within the ruling party’s stronghold in Obingwa LGA. The entrenched structure of criminality in Abia State did not concede or accept defeat without fighting dirty. They resorted to playing with numbers in their desperate attempts to thwart and subvert the will of the generality of Abians. The magical poll numbers from Obingwa LGA was in a perpetual flux as it kept moving with time. The elasticity of the voting numbers from Obingwa LGA continued stretching as the margin of candidate Alex Otti’s win from other Local Governments widened.
The miracle of Obingwa LGA increasing magic numbers even after counting had long ended, was so glaring that the Local Government had 5X more than the votes from the 2 State Constituencies that made up the Local Government where election took place the same day and time, the same polling units, the same electoral empires and the same registered electorates and voters.
Candidate Alex Otti’s team and the people of Abia State were vigilant and charged as the experience of the 2015 outcome has remained a strong reminder of the saying that, ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’. Abians did not forget in a hurry that it was in Nigeria where Zuma Rock was moved from Niger State to Abuja on our Naira Notes through prayers by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The election slogan, ‘Oke Anagi Eri Ihe Onye Muo Anya’ as popularised by Candidate Otti came handy to Abians. They stayed awake until the 22nd day of March, 2023 (4 days after the election) when the result was finally announced and Candidate Alex Otti declared as the Governor-Elect of Abia State.
The then Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, in his usual deceptive manner, congratulated the Governor-Elect, Dr. Alex Otti with a promise of not going to court to challenge his victory. As usual, It turned out to be a deceptive ploy to trick the Governor-elect to rest on his oars believing that the hulks has given up. Then Governor Ikpeazu funded and sent out his Lieutenants to shop around the country for a cash and carry kangaroo court order to dislodge the Governor-elect. They got one in Kano and procured it. The cash and carry judgement was set aside and squashed on appeal.
The entrenched forces of darkness in Abia State assured their members, especially the die-hard beneficiaries and would be beneficiaries of a done deal victory at the Apex Court allegedly brokered by a serial fixer in the good books of the ‘Presidency’. They made every nocturnal attempts to stop the inauguration of Governor Otti on the 29th day of May, 2023. When all the devilish moves failed, they resorted to inciting and setting up President Tinubu and the Presidency against Governor Alex Otti. In the early days of the administration, when the portraits of Mr. President and the Governor were still being hanged around public buildings and offices by the new administration in Abia, the entrenched political structure in Abia State used their compromised agents in the guise of civil servants to snap offices without portraits or where portraits of Mr. President was yet to be deployed/hanged just to incite or create suspicion, rift and bad blood between Mr. President, the Presidency and the Governor of Abia State on the false allegation and incitement that the Governor vowed not to recognise a President who had taken the oath of Office just to turn the President against the Governor and give them an edge in the pending matter in court. Once again, it failed.
They jumped to inciting Abia workers against the Governor by claiming, albeit falsely, that the former Governor left N24 Billion in the State coffers to enable the New Administration defray outstanding arrears of salaries owed workers by them. As expected, it failed as Abia workers questioned how a Governor can owe them months and years of arrears of salaries only to turn around to arm an opponent with funds to pay the arrears and score a political point against him. The lie fell like a pack of cards as the people witnessed how they looted not only the State’s treasury but every public properties including public schools, spaces, vehicles, generators, office furniture and electronics on the eve of the inauguration.
In less than one month of the inauguration of Governor Otti, the same characters who controlled the State’s resources for an uninterrupted 8 – 16 years period with their hired agents and well funded structures were everywhere in the media space, blaming the new administration for the dilapidated and ruined Infrastructures around the State, the dirt and filth in the streets of Aba and Umuahia and the months and years arrears of salaries owed Abia workers and pensioners by them.
They were so desperate that they offered and put up Abia State for mortgage to anyone that can do their dirty job of influencing the Apex Court judgement in their favour. They were so upbeat and made assurance double sure to their members and agents who believed in their ability to turn stone into bread with the mind-boggling resources they looted and plundered from the public treasury. Until today, some of them are yet to wake-up from the reality of the Supreme Court judgement which dashed their hopes and diminished the assurances.
However, from the ashes of their defeat, disappointment and imminent retirement from public office, they set-up a well funded attack and distraction machinery to incite the people against the New Government through daily concoction of falsehood, misinformation and fake news. The hired and rented misinformation machineries and mischief – makers were saddled with 3 assignments; incite the public against the New Government, distract the Government from focusing on Governance and put the Government on the defensive. Yet again, they failed because they failed to realise that His Excellency, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti came prepared with plans and strategies in place. Little did they know that Governor Otti understands their weakest link, which is the welfare of the people. As the Governor embarked on his mission to work for the good of the State, make the welfare of the people a priority and correct the injustices of the past, they continued to be sad, miserable and weakened. The progressive transformation of the State by Governor Alex Otti set their structures on fire and put them in total disarray and made them disoriented. They started decamping to seek relevance, believing that old things shall pass away and everything will become new in their new political party without considering restituting the looted and plundered resources back to the State.
The remnants of the old order could not survive outside power and access to public treasury. They launched the last desperate attack by setting up the impotent and defeated ‘SHADOW GOVERNMENT’ with SHADOW portfolios assigned to e-Rats and bunch of bad losers apparently with SHADOW allocation. Since that infamous move, their shadows have been completely vanquished leading to a graveyard silence ‘Shadow of Defeat’.
Ctz. UKOHA NJOKU UKOHA
