The Abia State government has alleged that a priest of the Anglican Diocese of Aba is attacking it for rejecting three requests he brought to Governor Alex Otti.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Otti, Ferdinand Ekeoma, made the allegation on Saturday while reacting to a recent communique issued by the Aba Diocese of the Anglican Church, during the 3rd Session of its 17th Synod.
The Aba Anglican Diocese had in its communique, condemned the Otti administration for recently sacking civil servants employed by his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu.
The communique, which was signed by the Rt. Rev, Christian Ugwuzo, Bishop of Aba Diocese, and Venerable Innocent Ogbonna, the Clerical Synod Secretary, demanded the recall of the sacked workers, even though it faulted their ‘last minute’ employment by the past administration.
The communique further urged the government in the state to declare a state of emergency on some bad roads in Aba including Port Harcourt road, Ohanku road and Obohia road.
But responding to the communique, Otti’s media adviser, Ekeoma, said some paragraphs in the message were designed to mislead the public.
He alleged that one of the signatories to the communique was executing a personal vendetta against Otti for not excluding the priest’s daughter from the names of civil servants that were recently disengaged, adding that the priest had before the Synod, also brought two other proposals to the governor which were all turned down.
Parts of the statement read, “The said signatory had made a request to the Governor to exclude and allow his daughter who was a beneficiary of the March 2023 fake employment carried out by the previous government, after it had lost election, to remain in the civil service.
“However, the governor turned down the request on the grounds that it will be unjust to exclude or recall one person out of the several people affected.
“The same signatory had also made two other futile requests to the Governor which included; to endorse and confirm a factional Chairman of NULGE in Abia against the will of majority of the union executives and members, and also to support the imposition of a certain traditional ruler as Chairman traditional rulers council.
“The governor turned down these requests because they were unhealthy and self serving..
“Having rightly expressed their opposition to that unjustifiable last minute employment sham, we are therefore surprised that the Anglican Synod turned around to disagree with the Alex Otti led-government over its decision to invalidate that act of deceit that was obviously a booby trap for the Otti government. This contradiction leaves many questions unanswered”
The statement added that the Otti-led administration would still create genuine employment opportunities for Abians in the future after “cleaning up the state’s civil service”, insisting that no genuinely employed worker was sacked by Otti.
Ekeoma, in the statement, noted that Otti’s administration is enjoying a cordial relationship with the Anglican Church.
The communique issued by the Anglican Church had generated controversy in Abia State on Friday, with some people hailing the priests for the message while others accused them of playing politics.