Ex-commissioner Criticizes Otti’s On Aba Mayoral Selection

The immediate-past Commissioner for Information in Abia State, Eze Chikamnayo, has knocked Governor Alex Otti following his appointment of Anambra State born-billionaire, Ide Udeagbala, as the Mayor of Aba City.

Chikamnayo warned in a statement issued on Monday that his insistence on appointing or giving priority to non-indigenes at the expense of the natives could set the state on fire.

Otti had announced the appointment of the consummate Industrialist as Mayor of Aba City on Saturday amid controversy.

The governor, who addressed some stakeholders in a viral video, stressed that the era of indigenes and non-indigenes sentiment is gone in the state.

According to him, only merit will determine who gets what in his administration.

The new mayor, who hails from Ozubulu in Ekwusigo local Government area of Anambra State, is a graduate of Harvard University.

Reacting to the development on Monday, Chikamnayo urged President Bola Tinubu and security agencies to call Otti to order, to avoid turning the state into a crisis zone over his utterances.

The statement titled ‘Stop Alex Otti before he sets Abia on fire’ emphasised that Aba belongs to two closely knitted communities known as ‘Aba Na Ohazu,’ stressing that the city is not a no man’s land.

The statement reads in part, “Non-indigenes from other parts of Abia State and or Igbo lands like old Bende, Anambra, Enugu, Imo State or Ebonyi, regardless of their wealth or status should never allow themselves to be deceived by Mr Alex Otti to assume that they can mutate into the owners of Aba. By recklessly declaring that Aba is a no man’s land, Otti is inadvertently setting Abia on fire and instigating avoidable unrest in that peaceful city.

“For reasons best known to him, he is ostensibly trying to stoke this fire of indigene and non-indigene dichotomy to further insult the Ngwa Nation and polarize the polity. Since assumption of office, the governor’s penchant for playing to the gallery is legendary. If he truly wants to patronize his fellow big men like Bourdex, Udeagbara and others, he must not reduce them to canon fodders thereby setting them up against the people.”

“Can Mr Alex Otti go to Umuahia and tell Ibeku and Ohuhu people that Umuahia North is a no man’s land? Can he go to Owerri, Onitsha, Port Harcourt or Warri and make such an inflammatory, nonsensical statement.”