Disceitful And Disdainful Treatment Of The People Of Ukwa-West By The Administration Of Governor Alexander Otti Of Abia State.
27th August, 2025.
Reports on many Social Media Platforms have it that the Governor of Abia State, Alexander Otti, will visit Ukwa-West Local Government Area of the State on Friday (Eke) 29th August, 2025, for the sheer parochial purpose of receiving some individuals who intend leaving the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, into his conflicting-status Labour Party.
In as much as Governor Otti is entitled to his wish to advance the membership of his Labour Party, a Party which hierarchical status remains precariously undefined, even as the Governor is said to be desperately making frantic efforts to see if a waver could be given to him to rejoin the All Progressives Congress, APC, a Party he had earlier been a member of but jettisoned after he had decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, it behoves the Governor to address certain fundamental abnormalities his governorship has raised amongst the People of Ukwa-West, culturally referred to as Asa People.
(1) For a start, when the Governor visited Obehie-Asa in Ukwa-West Local Government Area while campaigning for the third time for the Governorship of Abia State in 2022/23, having previously consecutively failed twice in 2015, and 2019, coming a very distant third in 2019, he, without any persuasion from Asa People, promised the good People of Ukwa-West that, if elected, he would relocate the Headquarters of Abia State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, ASOPADEC, to Ukwa-West Local Government Area.
It has to be recalled that the State Office of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is at Okeikpe, in Ukwa-West Local Government Area.
It is twenty-six months since he became Governor of Abia State yet he has not shown any sign that he made such a promise. That promise, reminiscent of that of a typical politician, has been consigned to the dusty repository of his memory. What an indecent way of deceiving and deriding a People!
(2) Governor Alexander Otti can not claim to be ignorant of Section 14 (3) and (4) of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. In that Section is enshrined the Principle of Federal Character which primarily mandates that composition of Governments and their Agencies shall reflect the diversity of the Nigerian People and those of the States, in order to make sure that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States, ethnic groups or sections in any Government establishment.
Governor Otti disdainfully and flagrantly violated this section of the Nigerian Constitution by unwholesomely refusing to appoint any of the four Senior Directors in Abia Civil Service who are indigenes of Ukwa-West as a Permanent-Secretary. He falsely claims that none of the four indigenes of Ukwa-West was able to pass the so-called qualifying examination his Administration claimed it used as a parameter for his appointment.
Even when he claimed that no Asa Director passed his examination, which some of the Directors from Asa have since debunked and even challenged but were intimidated, as it were, to withdraw or suspend their protest, Governor Otti went ahead to appoint a retired Director from Umuahia-North Local Government Area who did not sit for his so-called examination as a Permanent-Secretary. Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, is copiously further ridiculed when taken into consideration that he appointed as strangely and inappropriately many as five Permanent-Secretaries from Bende Local Government Area alone. Yet none was appointed from Ukwa-West. Yet no member of Labour Party in Ukwa-West can summon the courage to ask the Governor why he has chosen to treat the People of Ukwa-West in the most disdainful and disrespectful manner!
(3) The Administration of Governor Otti claims to have ‘earmarked’ N16B for retrofitting of Primary Health Centres in Abia State. In Ukwa-West Local Government Area, his Government deceitfully and insultingly recommissioned a Primary Health Centre completely built by a former Council Chairman of Ukwa-West, Chief Okey Kanu, and commissioned by former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu at Okeikpe.
At Umuiku-Isi-Asa Primary Health Centre, his Government deroofed the Centre built by the Niger Delta Development Commission and attempted to take the roofing sheets away for probable repainting as to make them appear to be new ones but the Community Leaders vehemently resisted that attempt. Since then, work has been stalled on the project, making it difficult for the People to have access to medicare.
(4) On Abia State Government Website, the Government is said to have claimed it used an usually humongous amount of N54B to have renovated both Primary and Secondary Schools in Abia State. A release by the State Government, in its desperation to justify such falshood, indicates that only one School in Ukwa-West, Obuzor Primary School, was renovated. Even at that, inquiries by Centre For Equity And Eradication Of Rural Poverty found out that the claim was false and deceitfully insulting. Governor Otti’s Government did not retrofit any School in Ukwa-West. The Government has no regards for the People of Ukwa-West. Why tell such lies?
(5) The same Government, through what appears to be a phony project in Ukwa-West, Abia Industrial and Innovation Park, AIIP, has again ridiculously undermined the collective intelligence of the average Asa Man. Under the guise of building an industrial park that will have a seaport at Owaza and its surroundings, thousands of hectares of farm land of the People were taken since September 2023. Almost two years after, the whole place where the deceitful ground breaking ceremony took place in September 2023 has been overgrown with weeds. Will the Government deny knowing that where a seaport can be built in Abia State is at Obuaku-Ndoki in Ukwa-East, and why deceive the People with an utopian promise?
(6) As the only Oil-Producing Local Government Area of the State, Abia State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, ASOPADEC, was created by the Government of Chief T. A. Orji in 2009 to address environmental degradation of communities in and around Oil-Producing areas, caused by pollution as a result of Oil exploration and exploitation. The State Government receives a 13% Oil Derivation Fund from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, out of which, according to a Law by Abia State House of Assembly, 30% of the 13% is meant for ASOPADEC to be used to carter for the interest of the Oil-Producing Area.
If the Governor is sincere, he should, on his visit to Asa, tell the People of Asa how much that 30% has accumulated to in 26 months of his Administration. Asa People will want to know how much his Administration has been able to release to the Commission. This question is important because, apart from the renovation of Asa Civic Centre at Obehie carried out by ASOPADEC, there is hardly any tangible impact the Commission has made in Asa land since the emergence of Governor Otti. With the worst network of roads in the South-East, Asa People deserve to know what the Governor has been doing with their 30% of the 13% Oil Derivation Fund.
It is on record that previous State Governors had respect for Asa Traditional Rulers and approved the purchase of Sports Utility Vehicles for the Royal Fathers of Asa land. But in the case of Otti’s Government, disdain and disrespect are the only packages the Administration has for Asa Royal Fathers.
(7) Before Governor Alexander Otti settles down to receive those politicians that claim they will decamp to Labour Party on Friday (Eke) 29th August, 2025, hoping they should not forget that the goddess of Ala has no soft spot for mischievous individuals on Eke Market days, he should not fail to explain to the People of Asa why Ukwa-West Local Government Council has never embarked on any developmental project since November 2024 that it was inaugurated. Why is it that statutory financial allocations meant for Ukwa-West Local Government Council, as monthly released by Federation Account Allocation Committee, and as directed should be given to her by the Supreme Court, does not reach the Council?
An online News Medium, Equity Global Reporters Ltd, had formally written to the Executive Chairman of Ukwa-West Local Government Council, Pst Dike Nwankwo, to let her know how much the Council has, so far, received since November 2024, to July 2025, but the Chairman refused to give any response to the inquiry. Asa People will obviously demand to know from the State Governor why there is no impact on the developmental trajectory of Ukwa-West by the Council, even when the Council receives an average monthly allocation of N350,000,000.00.
(8) Local Content Act stipulates that contract jobs in any area in Nigeria should be given to capable indigenous Contractors in the area where the contract is to be executed.
Centre For Equity And Eradication of Rural Poverty learnt that Governor Otti directed that contract for restoration of electricity to Ukwa-West should be awarded to someone from outside Ukwa-West, when there are many competent Asa Electrical Engineering contractors that have the expertise and wherewithal to effectively execute such jobs.
In 2022 when Governor Okezie Ikpeazu restored electricity to Ukwa-West, he made sure that the project was handled by an Electrical Engineer of Asa extraction. The project, which was supervised by Hon Tony Mezie Nwubani as Chairman, Dr Lucky Eleogu as Secretary, and Sir Eugene Dike as Member, was efficiently successfully handled. It was the indigenous Contractor that initiated the innovation of rerooting Ukwa-West Electric line from Aba- Port-Harcourt express road, and linked it through Umugo in Ugwunagbo Local Government Area. That initiative made matters easier for Asa People before some hoodlums vandalized some Electric Transformers in Ukwa-West. So, there was application of local content in every aspect of the project.
Centre For Equity And Eradication of Rural Poverty finds no justifiable reason why Governor Otti should not have, in accordance with Local Content Law, awarded the contract to an indigenous Asa contractor.
Repeatedly, Centre For Equity And Eradication of Rural Poverty, which owns authorship of this write-up, would want Governor Alexander Otti to, if possible, address the eight issues frankly raised in this piece, even as he is heartily welcome to Asa land to ‘poach’ politicians.
Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP
Executive Director
Centre For Equity And Eradication Of Rural Poverty.
