Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, has been accused of instituting oppressive policies that are subjecting Abians to excruciating hunger and immeasurable suffering.
The Abia Renaissance Movement, ARM, made the accusation in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Comrade Ukachukwu Chinonso, and Secretary-General, Comrade Mrs Maria Nwokoma, and released to the media on Friday in Umuahia the Abia State capital on the heels of a government memo now in the public space wherein MDAs were directed to submit the nominal rolls used in paying salaries for December 2022, as “the payment of June 2023 salary shall be based on the salary modalities used for the payment of December 2022 salary”.
The group “observed that the government memo deliberately left out outstanding salaries for April and May 2023 indicating that only June salary will be paid”, accused Otti of pursuing policies of hunger and suffering against Abians and noted that since his assumption of office, the Abia State governor has been “introducing draconian policies that are gradually building an army of hungry and angry people in the state.
“Those lady-keke revenue agents that usually earn a living by standing on the roadside to collect revenue from keke riders on behalf of government through automated means have been rendered jobless, and they are in their hundreds.
“The ‘park boys’ also in their hundreds across the state have been eased out of the system without any arrangement to integrate them back into society with alternative means of livelihood, and they are waiting in the wings to pounce. And now, the civil servants are beginning to feel the brunt. Just recently, the same Otti government issued a memo to all civil servants working in the state’s liaison offices in Abuja and Lagos to relocate back to Abia State for ‘deployment’, giving them less than two weeks to do so. This is despite the fact that most of these civil swrvants have been living and settled in those places for years. Pulling them away with such grossly inadequate notice is not only inconsiderate but also wicked.
“More over, given that Abia civil servants are yet to be paid their April, May, and now ending June salaries, coupled with cost of transportation that has nearly quadrupled due to the fuel subsidy saga, how does Otti expect the affected workers to leave Abuja and Lagos within such a short period of time and in such circumstances?
“The list of such draconian policies by Alex Otti’s government keeps growing and the suffering of Abians under his watch seems unceasing. It is only a matter of time before things implode,” the group warned.
