A civil society organization, United Abia Artistes and Patriots have warned that if by any means, the alleged Kano Court disqualification of Alex Otti, as the Abia State Governor-elect, is true and he is not sworn in on May 29, the state may be set ablaze.
The group, which stated this while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, said it strongly believes that the purported nullification of Otti’s victory in a judgement delivered by a federal high court in Kano State and the subsequent denial by the parties involved, was only a sign of things planning to be executed.
A Federal High Court sitting in Kano had disqualified the candidacy of Alex Otti and other Labour Party candidates in the last general elections in Abia State, noting that the process that produce them was not in conformity with the constitution and electoral law.
However, a lot of denial and mixed reactions have followed the judgement, which judge also denied disqualification of Alex Otti, in the long run.
Speaking at the conference, the group Convener, Osita Offor and Secretary/Legal Adviser, Chuks Akamadu, described the Kano judgement as a joke taken too far, noting that the mood of the residents of the state at the moment, hardly auspicious for such jokes!
The group, which recounted failures by the successive administrations in the state, including owing workers 35 months’ salary arrears and not paying pensioners for over 40 months, also alleged a plot to thwart the will of the people and steal their mandate by all means, warned that such move will be resisted by the people.
Explaining further, the deplorable condition of the state and the failures of the subsequent administrations in the state, UAAP, claimed that gratuity for retired workers in the state is now a forgotten benefit while doctors and judiciary workers are still on strike over poor or no remuneration.
It alleged that, while appointees of the government have been busy building houses, and hotels and acquiring new fleets of vehicles in the state, other people suffer from bad roads and a lack of other basic needs.
”Those around the state’s funds have been buying landed properties in choice areas in the state, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos State, travelling abroad at will and for medical trips, sending their kids to study abroad and live like emperors.
”So, the last gubernatorial election in Abia State was a battle between a political criminal cabal that has impoverished the people and Abians themselves.
”That is why Abians christened 18 March 2023 as Abia State’s “Independence Day.” The day Abians defeated the political criminal cabal that had held the people, hostage, hijacked our commonwealth and impoverished the masses,” the group stated.
It said the Kano Court judgement was dead on arrival and therefore a storm in a teacup that should not be given a life it does not have.
It stated equivocally that the mandate given to Otti by the Abia masses is safe and secure and can never be stolen by strange usurpers who are saddened and shocked by the reality of their imminent exit from power in the next few days.
However, it warned that the judiciary should henceforth refrain from entertaining ill-conceived suits that are designed to embarrass it and should not allow itself to be used to destroy the peace of the state or put it in harm’s way.
“We demand an immediate end to mischief-making and all acts that are capable of hurting Abia’s democratic journey by the soon-to-expire gang of political profiteers, else they would have the full wrath of highly inflammable Abia masses to contend with,” the group warned.
