100 Days: PDP scores Otti low, Gov’s aide disagrees
By Emma Ogbuehi
After 100 days in office as Abia governor, the Abia Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has scored Dr. Alex Otti and the Labour Party (LP) low in performance profile, accusing them of being incapable of presenting a scorecard to Abians to showcase their achievements.
The party further mocked that it is not disappointed because it is typical and a pattern for the governor to ignore conventions that strengthen the foundations of Abia’s democracy and resort to actions that weaken it.
PDP made the allegation in a press statement by its vice chairman and acting Publicity Secretary, Abraham Amah, in which it stated that Otti has nothing to offer, adding the governor and his team have continuously failed to realise that best intentions do not produce the best outcomes unless they are matched with realistic hands-on implementations.
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The allegation comes as Otti’s aide and the Chief Press Secretary, Kazie Uko said the governor has rejuvenated Abia State after 32 years, adding, “For 32 years, worse in the last 24 years, Abia was run as a fiefdom by some feudal lords and their political minions, who saw the state as their private enclave”.
He highlighted Otti’s giant stride in 100 days to include in the areas of health, education, road infrastructure, sanitization of the internal revenue generation system in the state, security, and salary/pension, among others.
Uko noted, “In under 100 days, the Otti administration had embarked on several projects to better the lives of Abians. Every sector was a priority. Security, roads, health, environment, education, power, agriculture; even sports, youth development, information, women affairs, all suffered neglect under previous administrations and particularly in the last 24 years
Notwithstanding, PDP said it has taken the liberty to x-ray the 100 days of Alex Otti sector by sector to show Abians how badly he has fared in his responsibility to better the lot of Abians, stating, “Alex Otti has failed to unite Abians and call everyone to be a part of the efforts required to build an Abia that all Abians would be proud of.”
It further noted, “Within 24 hours that he assumed office, Alex Otti suspended all the Permanent Secretaries in the employ of the Abia State government.
“In a swift and inconsiderate action, he boasted of having sacked about 7000 Abia workers and saved N200m from the payroll on the pretext that they were ghost workers without tracing the accounts that received those salaries and without recourse to civil service rules, and surreptitiously sacked all medical doctors in Abia State but was made to reverse his steps when the Abia branch of the Nigerian Medical Association cried out about the dangers of undertaking such an ill-advised step in the medical sector.
“Just last week, Abians woke to the directive by Alex Otti to sack all Abia civil servants employed between January 2023 and May 29, 2023. The 17 local government areas are run from the desk of Alex Otti and do not have an economic blueprint or policy direction pointing to any formulations that are intended to scale the economic development and growth of Abia State.”
“The industrial potential of Aba, the cash cow of Abia’s Internally Generated Revenue has been left fallow and his administration has not unveiled any economic blueprint for Aba to continue from the successes recorded by the last administration, while the only economic directive that has come out of the Alex Otti economic box is the widening of the tax net to bring in more taxable Abians.
“While many states are delivering critical roads and other infrastructure within 100 days, only patches of roads within the Aba metropolis that do not measure up to 10 kilometres in all are receiving the loud noise from the government of Alex Otti, while in 100 days, only three general hospitals are being rehabilitated even as they are yet to be completed and delivered to the needy public and no new schools have been built nor old ones refurbished.
“Alex has not said anything about giving Abia rail lines to ease transportation and workers’ difficulties, and insecurity is back in full swing and the lives of Abians are more endangered in just three months”.