The self-acclaimed  leader of the Opposition in Abia State, Mr Don Ubani on Saturday slammed Governor Alex Otti over marginalisation of Ukwa-West LGA in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries.


 "Why must Bende Local Government alone, for instance, get five Permanent-Secretaries but Ukwa-West that produces Oil and Gas for the State did not get even One, despite having five very competent Directors in the State's Civil Service?", the Opposition Leader queried the governor


 Ubani argued that Ukwa-West should have been given One Slot out of Twenty-four Permanent-Secretaries discriminatorily, inequitably and unjustly appointed by Gov Otti. 


"Up till now, I am still challenging the Governor to desist from enthroning inequity and injustice in the affairs of the State's Civil Service.  This is an aberration and unacceptable display of injustice against the very good People of Ukwa-West", Ubani, former Commissioner for Information and Strategy maintained


Pitiful Manifestation Of Total Ignorance, Political Imbecility And Inconsequential Timidity By Leadership Of Labour Party In Ukwa-West Local Government Area Of Abia State.



By Sir Don Ubani


My attention has been drawn to an online publication by the infantile leadership of Labour Party in my Local Government Area of Ukwa-West captioned, 'Don Ubani's view against Otti's administration, not ours - Ukwa people'.

Starting from the way the caption itself was couched, any critical reader would know that the persons involved in the publication are individuals that completely lack any sense of accurate sequential presentation. 


Let me leave their poor sense of arrangement but without failing to point out that the so-called leaders ignorantly laid an erroneous claim when they said they were speaking for 'Ukwa People'. What they failed to understand is that the nomenclature Ukwa refers to the two distinct Clans of Asa and Ndoki, Ukwa-West and Ukwa-East, respectively. Labour Party members in Ukwa-West can not speak for Ukwa Peoples. They do not have the required stamina to do so.


As long as records of 2023 General Election were concerned, Labour Party was non-existent in Ukwa-West Local Government Area. I am sure Governor Otti knows that those persons who now claim to be his supporters and leaders of Labour Party in Ukwa-West have no electoral value. None of them recorded up to 30% of total votes cast in their respective Polling Units. Ironically, some of them were either members of Peoples Democratic Party or APGA up and untill the Governorship Election of March 18, 2023. So, basically, some of them who pretend to be vociferous defenders of Governor Otti are mere deceitful characters who are disingenuously labouring to harvest from a garden they did not sow in. 


In their pretentious grandstanding, they vainly attempted to curry the favour of Governor Alexander Otti by giving the false impression that I was writing what they referred to as 'Scandalous write-ups'. They are just being unfortunate. To start with, they should see themselves as irretrievable political failures. While I was in Government, there was no time an Asa Man was not a Permanent-Secretary in the Civil Service of Abia State. There was even a time we had Two Permanent-Secretaries of Asa extraction at the same time. But the self-acclaimed  leaders of Labour Party in Ukwa-West are so porous, timid and cowardly that they dare not tell the Governor that Ukwa-West should have, at least, One Slot out of Twenty-four Permanent-Secretaries discriminatorily, inequitably and unjustly appointed by Governor Otti. Up till now, I am still challenging the Governor to desist from enthroning inequity and injustice in the affairs of the State's Civil Service. Why must Bende Local Government alone, for instance, get Five Permanent-Secretaries but Ukwa-West that produces Oil and Gas for the State did not get even One, despite having Five very competent Directors in the State's Civil Service? This is an aberration and unacceptable display of injustice against the very good People of Ukwa-West. Yet some Asa chaps who were said to be doing Yahoo Yahoo in Asia are busy issuing cork and bull stories about Sir Don Ubani. Yahoo Yahoo gbuokwa unu!


I have said it for the umpteenth time and I am repeating it here that Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, ASOPADEC, was created by the Government of former Governor T A Orji as an Interventionist Agency to carter for the degradation, dilapidation and environmental hazards confronting Asa People as a result of Oil exploration, Oil exploitation and Gas flaring. Asa young Men and Women employed in ASOPADEC, should be seen from the concept of Poverty Alleviation. Why, therefore, must Governor Alex Otti, through his 'Manager' of the Commission subject Asa indigenes to excruciating frustration, under the cover of Biometric Machines? Why must they be confronted with a financially horrible situation where they have to spend about N50,000.00 on transport alone in a month just to earn only N30,000.00? 


Meanwhile, I am morally bound to call on Governor Alexander Otti to have a rethink on the very strange and unprecedented exploitative manner in which he handles pecuniary allocations to ASOPADEC. The Law that set up ASOPADEC stipulates that 30% of the 13% Oil Derivation Fund should, on monthly basis, be allocated to the Commission. It is killing to note that when the monthly 30% of the stated 13% amounts, for instance, to Four Hundred Million Naira, the Governor will give only Sixty Million Naira to ASOPADEC. It simply means that the Governor means not well for Asa People


By the way, I understand the 'Manager' of ASOPADEC is a Priest in my Church, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion. I have a lot of respect for the Church and Priesthood. Because of such respect, I will not respond to what was reportedly attributed to him as having said about me. But I have to sound a note of warning here that any other day he makes mention of my name in bad light, I will go into the Archives and dig up his true picture and personality. I wish he would be reasonable enough to allow the sleeping dog to simply lie.


On their false assertion that Governor Otti has already done much for Ukwa-West, I want to say it that the Governor is yet to do any substantial thing for the People of Asa. The Old Obehie road that was commissioned by the Governor was almost 70% completed by ASOPADEC under former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.


The only thing I know Governor Otti has done in Asa is deceitful acquisition of Land on the false pretence that his Administration will build a Seaport at Owaza. That is completely deceitful because he knows he can not build a Seaport at Owaza. The only place a Seaport can be built in Abia State is in Obuaku-Ndoki that enjoys a close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, about 45 nautical miles. What the Governor is currently doing with the Land he acquired from Asa People is parcellation and sale. Our People are merely being deprived of their Land. Because the Governor does not want Asa People to know the enormity of what woes will befall them in the next twenty to fifty years, he tactfully made sure that no Asa Man is brought close to the picture of the sales of the Land he thinks he has managed to deceitfully grabb from Asa People. If the Governor meant well for Asa People, he should have appointed an Asa Man to be in charge of his so-called Abia Industrial Innovation Park, AIIP. As long as AIIP is concerned, Asa People are strangers to the project, which is designed to hoodwink us. 


I also want to use this opportunity to state, once again, that since Abia State Independent Electoral Commission is a creation of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, it is wrong and unacceptable for the Governor to have unilaterally jettisoned Electoral Wards created by the Electoral Commission in the State.


Of course, Asa People are intelligent and have already known that Governor Alexander Otti is only pulling a wool over their eyes. That is why almost more than 95% of Asa Politicians that have, so far, decamped from PDP have moved to All Progressives Congress, APC. No Asa Man considers Labour Party, even as a ruling Party, as an option. It is so because from their top to their bottom, they are characterized by bitterness, hate, vindictiveness and vendetta. Everyone of them is Onye Obi Akpor. I have never seen a group of people as embittered as members of Labour Party in Abia State.


Sir Don Ubani; Leader of Opposition in Abia State,is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State and writes from Asa.