For more than two weeks running, a viral video in which a prominent politician in Abia State and former Commissioner for Local Government And Chieftaincy Affairs in the State, Chief Charles Ogbonna, also known as Evulogu Ibeku, openly stated that Governor Alexander Otti of Abia State told him in confidence that ‘Ngwa People Have No Brain’ has been making the rounds, and generating a lot of concern within the public domain.
Ordinarily, many would have categorized the statement by Evulogu Ibeku as propaganda associated with current political waves, as campaigns for 2027 general election have begun. But this should not be so! Evolugu did not just disclose a statement he attributed to the Governor of Abia State but boldly went further to challenge the Governor to take him to Court if he knew what he said was not true. According to him in the said video, he has evidence to prove that Governor Otti did unequivocally describe Ngwa People as ‘People without a Brain’
Interestingly, Governor Otti has introduced some strange elements in government/citizens’ relationship in the State. Unlike his predecessors who were tolerant to views by dissenting members of the public, Governor Otti has the penchant to sue citizens over matters that border on mere allegations, claiming not just Millions of Naira, but Billions.
It is, therefore, surprising, and conveys a lot of interpretations that Governor Otti has, up till date, not filed a defamation suit of, at least, Five Billion Naira against Chief Charles Ogbonna who said he confided in him on a visit to his house that ‘Ngwa People Have No Brain’.
This type of disclosure by Evulogu is far beyond the normal rhetoric that could be dismissed with a mere wave of the hand. Whoever that knows Evulogu should know and attest to the fact that he is not a Beer Parlour Character. He is a Man who measures his words with utmost caution and circumspection before pronouncing them.
Be it as it may, even though very weighty, what Evulogu has purportedly disclosed as the ‘disdainful perception of Governor Otti about the Ngwa Sub-ethnic Nationality’ that had generously provided the enabling environment for the migrant Aro parents of Otti to train him, remains an allegation.
Even at that, Governor Otti has both moral and legal responsibility to either debunk the very strong allegation by Evulogu, taking him to Court or, in the alternative, apologize to the Ngwa Sub-ethnic Nationality.
If Governor Otti really told Evulogu that ‘Ngwa People Have No Brain’, that was the climax of expression of decades of animosity, irreconcilable hatred, and contempt against Ngwa People that had most magnanimously accommodated and sheltered his late parents from his Arochukwu ancestral home in Abia-North, and innocently assumed that they could regard him as one of their own.
Again, if Governor Otti ever made that very contemptible, destructive and dehumanising pronouncement against the collectivity of the very populous and ever kind Ngwa People as ‘Having No Brain’, it would simply mean there was no other way of expressing his, most likely, summation that ‘Ngwa People are Unintelligent and Foolish’. They are, by that assessment, as would be understood, dumb.
It is only in Ngwa Sub-ethnic Nationality, the land of my Great Maternal Uncles, that someone who is a ‘migrant’ can allegedly make such a blistering statement and still feels that the People so degraded are so dumb and incapable of reacting to such a scathing and insulting vitriolic utterance.
No human-being, no matter how highly-placed and protected can reduce clans such as; Ibeku, Edda, Wawa, Ikwerre, Annang, not to talk of Yoruba, Hausa or Fulani People to that level of aspersion, castigation, and dismissive humiliation.
In conclusion, in order to timely prevent Sub-ethnic Clashes which could ignite terrible insecurity in Abia State, resulting from that alleged inflammatory and combustible statement by Governor Otti against innocent and innocuous Ngwa People, Equity Global Reporters Ltd urges Governor Otti to, in line with his laid down tradition of going to Court to seek redress against Abians on allegations of defamation, head straight to the Court and slam, at least, a Five Billion Naira Suit against Chief Charles Ogbonna, Evulogu, for defamation, or, in the alternative and in the next Forty-eight Hours, if he knows that Evolugu said nothing but the truth and that Evolugu was smart enough to have lured him into putting his alleged dirty utterances against the Ngwa in a form that could be tendered as evidence against him, tender a public apology to the Ngwa Sub-ethnic Nationality for talking unguardedly, flippantly, venomously and most irresponsibly against their integrity and dignity.
Happy 66 Independence Anniversary To Our Dear Country, Nigeria!
Sir Don Ubani, Ogene Ukwu Nde Ngwa, is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, an Advocate of Peace founded on Equity and Justice, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
Thursday (Afor) 1st October, 2026.
