Don Ubani, a former Abia State Commissioner of Information and Strategy on Monday, criticised Governor Alex Otti over the reported plan by his administration to sack about seven thousand Abia youths employed in state’s public service by past administration and the rearing insecurities witnessed in some areas in the state.
This came on the heel of the ongoing verification of workers in state civil service and local government council areas by the Otti-led administration in Abia.
However, Mr Ubani, a former State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, who bared his mind in a statement on Monday, regretted that security and peace of the state appear not to be the concern of the governor despite receiving forty-five billion naira since his inception.
According to him, “Security of the state has nose-dived into a dark abyass. Otherwise, why should Governor Otti’s interest be to sack 7000 Abia youths only because they were employed in the last days of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu?
“Are the people employed not Abians? Apart from the terminal date of an elected Governor, is there any date set aside for a Governor not to act in that capacity,” he also queried.
Ubani continued: “The likely consequence of sacking 7000 youths from the public service of Abia state at a very discomforting economic crisis in Nigeria could be countless.
“Governor Otti should have managed to suppress his natural inclination to vindictiveness and allow these 7000 innocent Abia youths, a large chunk of who could be forced by hardship to unwillingly go into devastating crime, to continue with their legitimate means of livelihood.
“No one can access Abia State University, Uturu because of insecurity. With all the money he has received, why can he not give attention to security of lives and property?
“Killings have become the order of the day in Abia state, even to the extent of killing policemen.”
The ex-Abia PDP spokesman who also recalled his earlier warning on the electorates against choosing Alex Otti as governor at the recently-conducted 2023 elections in the state, insisted that Otti came into governance with bunch of bitterness and vindictiveness.
According to Abia party stalwart, “The inhumanity and excesses of Governor Alexander Otti indicate that he is on edge and may be asked to vacate the seat he is currently occupying before the end of December 2023.
“It could, therefore, mean that Mazi Alexander Otti, seeing himself as a mere placeholder, with no likely opportunity of contesting the post of Governorship again in view of his opportunistic preference for an NYSC Reference Letter’ to a Discharge Certificate or Exemption Certificate, is irrevocably determined to gather for himself as much as he could before the final blast of the whistle,” Mr Ubani further posited.