Ex-Commissioner, Ikpeazu’s CPS, Urge Otti To Take Responsibility, End Blame Game
…urge Otti to accept he is responsible for sacking Abia workers
Chief John Okiyi Kalu, a former Commissioner for Information in Abia State, has urged Governor Alex Otti to take responsibility for his shortcomings, this is even as a former Chief Press Secretary to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu urged Otti to end his blame game against his boss.
On the part of Okiyi-Kalu, he alleged that Otti is trying to use Ikpeazu’s name to justify his incompetence and wickedness toward Abia youths who were recently sacked from the state civil service.
The former Commissioner made the allegation while responding to questions from newsmen on a recent statement credited to Abia State Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu who accused Ikpeazu of employing ghost workers and backdating their employment letters.
Okiyi-Kalu said that it is laughable that after 100 days in office Otti’s government does not know that a Governor does not sign appointment letters and the use of BVN has totally eliminated ghosts from the Abia payroll system.
“Obviously the Otti administration is constituted by men and women with zero public sector management experience but after 100 days in office, one should expect that they have learned enough to know that a Governor does not sign appointment letters.
“Under Ikpeazu we had a duly constituted civil service commission whose job is to screen and recruit workers after waivers have been issued. It appears to me that Otti is no longer making use of this commission because he has employed workers at various levels, including his new Accountant General and they should all have passed through that commission without Otti signing their appointment letter himself.
“You can’t even talk about backdating because as long as there is a duly approved waiver from the Governor of the state the civil service commission will independently schedule, at their own convenience, to screen and issue appointment letters to those involved.
“Every waiver endorsed by former Governor Ikpeazu remained valid as long as he endorsed before leaving office. It was not his job to decide when the commission will issue letters and I challenge Otti to publish any of the backdated appointment letters signed by Ikpeazu.”
Okiyi-Kalu said that during the Ikpeazu administration, it dawned on them after the EndSARS protests that they needed to systematically do something to keep Abia’s highly educated youths busy with jobs instead of becoming prey to the evils associated with idleness.
According to him, their administration reviewed the implication for Abia’s wage bill and found that it is marginal and can be accommodated within its lean resources, so the decision was made to hire those with relevant qualifications instead of allowing them to take to crime and be ultimately killed by security agents.
He said that Otti’s administration has received 10 times more funds than Ikpeazu’s had for the same number of months and it is only wickedness and hatred for Abia youths that will make Otti’s administration retrench anyone qualified and validly recruited through the civil service commission.
“The interesting part is that they are sacking those people after physically verifying all of them to confirm that they are not ghosts and what has happened is that while Ikpeazu was intentional about job creation Otti is obviously intentional about sacking Abia youths.
“ It is also not possible to have ghost workers, as strictly defined, because every worker is paid using a bank account and BVN. What we have is a government that is trying to justify vindictiveness and wickedness to Abia youths by hiding behind any available excuse no matter how mundane.
“The same man claimed earlier that they discovered and sacked 7000 ghost workers and saved hundreds of millions of Naira but when put to task to publish the names with associated BVNs he quickly reviewed the numbers to 2500 “ghost workers” sacked at a time other states are doing everything possible to engage youths and raise wages to cushion the current harsh economic condition in the country.”
He said that what is happening in Abia is that Abia has an administration that came to power by accident of “Obi wave” without any plan or roadmap to lead the state in a proper direction.
“As journalists practising in Abia State, are there any of you here that have seen the electoral manifesto of Otti and Abia Labour Party before, during and after the 2023 election? Is there any single project this administration has started and completed since taking office more than 100 days ago?
“Aside from blaming Ikpeazu from morning to night and trying to harass those with opposing views into silence what other achievement can you point to since May 29th 2023.”
Speaking on the achievements of the Otti-led government after 100 days in office, Okiyi-Kalu said that Abia people were already being conditioned to believe that it is not important for the administration to have any such achievement and to also blame Ikpeazu for that.
“Otti is like every other populist who comes to power without a definite plan for the peace and progress of the people. The only recourse available to such leaders is to sell the notion that their predecessor left so much rot that they have to spend years cleaning.
“We saw that with the Buhari administration in 2015 and anyone familiar with our political history will know that any government that is prepared from day one will not have time for excuses and witch-hunting of administrations before them.
“Take your minds back to all the Governors that made heavy issues of probing and blaming their predecessor and you will observe that they were not prepared for leadership and hence never achieved anything substantial.
“You can imagine a govt that started a 600m road project at Cemetary road Aba and after achieving some milestones of about 100m proceeded to send pictures to a respected man like Charly Boy to post on Twitter as “great achievements of Otti in Abia” without even informing the man that all they did was 100m out of 600m whereas Ikpeazu did the proximal 3.5km Eziukwu-Cemetary road without noise.
“When Charly Boy came to Abia for an anniversary celebration why didn’t they take him to the road he advertised so he can see for himself that Abians have entered one chance bus with Otti as the driver?”
“All the Otti administration has done in terms of roads is to patch small portions of roads like Jubillee in Aba and start work on some Apiam ways leading to nowhere whereas at about the same 100 days period Governor Ikpeazu delivered 6 key road projects in Aba including the Ehere road commissioned by former President Obasanjo.
“Other roads done by Ikpeazu within those 100 days include Kamalu, Umuola, Ukaegbu, Tonimas, Enuc, Omni, and Umuocham all in Aba while he also did Roads 2 and 8 at federal housing estate in Umuahia and completely re-asphalted more than 15 other roads in Aba and Umuahia.
“Even the promise of Otti to construct 3 new general hospitals within his first 100 days is still inside voicemail whereas he is unable to put to use the ultra-modern multi-specialist hospital, new government house and Enyimba garment factory commissioned by Governor Ikpeazu in the last days of his administration.
“All we hear are excuses, blame games and vindictiveness towards those who didn’t support him because they correctly believed that he would turn out to be who he has turned out to be as Governor.”
Sir Onyebuchi Ememanka on his own said that in what has become a dangerous obsession, the Otti administration has become incurably unable to do anything without looking for any possible means to blame the Ikpeazu administration, even for things that make absolutely no sense.
“Their latest ploy is to blame the Ikpeazu administration and in particular, former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for their decision to sack several thousands of workers from the Abia State Civil Service.
“It is disturbing that someone who speaks for a state government is blatantly ignorant of the workings of government. How can actions carried out by a sitting Governor in offering employment to teeming Abians be termed as illegal?
“The term illegality connotes some form of criminality. What is criminal about the decision of an incumbent Governor to offer employment to the people of the State, putting them on the payroll and paying them a salary?”
