The Supreme Council of Ukwa-Ngwa Youths, an umbrella body of all youths association in Ngwa Nation, has said that former governor of the state and senator representing Abia Central senatorial zone, Theodore Ahamefula Orji’s stand on power shift to Abia North senatorial zone is misleading and capable of disrupting the peaceful political atmosphere in the state.
They, therefore, advised Abians and the general public “to jettison the purported statement credited to Orji, describing it as unstatemanly and undemocratic for an individual to arrogate to himself the sole prerogative of determining the rotation of the office of the state governor.”
In a statement made available to journalists in Umuahia, dated March 10, 2022, signed by the President-General of the group, Dannie Ubani, and Secretary-General, Chetachi Ahukanna, alluded to “a meeting purportedly held at T.A. Orji’s Umuahia residence which purportedly had in attendance representatives from the 17 LGAs” where he spoke in support of zoning the governorship position to Abia North.
The group said that they were irked by the said statement, which they described as being in conflict with the provisions of ‘Abia Chatter of Equity’ founded on two political blocs of Old Bende and Old Aba divisions.
“The Abia Charter of Equity was never in any manner founded, premised and anchored on the basis of Senatorial districts. It was never a creation of Abia Charter of Equity, but a manipulative after-thought of a tiny political incubus under the leadership of the then Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu,” the group said.
They alleged that Kalu aimed at perpetuating his stranglehold on power at the expense of old Aba zone, “which is in the outright negation of the letters and spirit of Abia Charter of Equity.”
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“The Old Bende division held the governorship position for 16 uninterrupted years while the Old Aba division would have had mere eight years stint at the completion of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration in 2023.
“Equity, good conscience, natural justice and fair play demand that what is good for the goose should equally be good for the gander, especially where this gander is the chick that lays the golden egg for the entire Abia State.
“It is very unstatemanly and undemocratic for an individual to arrogate to himself the sole prerogative of determining the rotation of the office of the state governor.
“Assuming without conceding that anybody has such powers, it should be the leader of the state, the governor,” the group said.
They, therefore, advised Abians and the “general public to jettison the purported statement credited to Senator T.A.Orji as it is misleading and capable of disrupting the peaceful political atmosphere in the state.”
Reacting to the stand of T.A Orji, a pro-democracy group commended the immediate past governor of the state for endorsing power shift to Abia North in 2023.
The former governor had, in a meeting held in Umuahia with select delegates from the 17 LGAs, declared that power should return to Abia North in line with the state’s charter of equity.
The pro-democracy group, Abia For Equity and Sustained Progress, said that the senator has doused tension in the state.
According to the Chairman of the group, Goodluck Umunnakwe, T.A. Orji demonstrated that he is truly the father of Equity in Abia.
He noted that Orji had as governor championed the rotation of power to Abia south which enabled the emergence of Okezie Ikpeazu as governor.
“What Ochendo has done now is what he did in 2014. He insisted that power should move to Abia South. Today, he has again pointed the way to go. We should follow that way,” he said.
