A group of elders drawn from 24 indigenous communities of Aba North and Aba South in Abia state on Friday criticised Governor Alex Otti for appointing Anambra billionaire, Ide Udeagbala, as the Mayor of Aba City, describing it as an aberration.
The development is coming in the wake of Otti’s appointment of the industrialist as Aba mayor amid controversy.
The governor, who addressed some stakeholders in a viral video, stressed that the era of indigenes and non-indigenes sentiment was gone in the state.
According to him, only merit would determine who got what in his administration.
The new mayor, who hails from Ozubulu in the Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State, is a graduate of Harvard University.
But the natives of Aba Ngwa would not have anything to do with it, describing the move as an insult to the sensibilities of Aba indigenes.
This was even as they alleged that Aba had been deliberately excluded by the governor in his appointments to the state executive council and in the leadership of the markets.
In a statement issued in Abuja by Ogechukwu Ogbonna on behalf of Aba Ngwa indigenes, the group elders vowed to resist the appointment, which they alleged could incite violence in Aba city.
The statement partly read, “The appointment of a ‘Mayor of Aba’ is not only unconstitutional but also an aberration. Appointing a non-indigene as the transition committee chairman of Aba is against the Abia State Local Government Transition Edict of 2002 which stipulates that the person appointed as a chairman shall be a native of the local government area.
“Appointing a non-indigene as the said ‘Mayor of Aba’, which has been said to be unconstitutional, is an insult to the sensibilities of the peaceful and hard-working indigenous people of Aba. The action of the governor of Abia State in relation to appointments are tantamount to pushing the indigenous people of Aba into extinction, which is unacceptable to us.
“We acknowledge that Otti’s duties, functions and actions are defined and guided by the Constitution of Nigeria and some other extant laws, but we shall resist any attempt capable of inciting violence in Aba which the actions and utterances of the governor are pointing towards.
“We are greatly worried that Aba has been deliberately excluded by the governor in his appointments into the state executive council and in the leadership of the markets.”
It added, “In line with the old saying that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands, should the governor plan to unconstitutionally foist a non-indigene on Aba as a transition committee chairman, he should do so in Umuahia, Bende, Arochukwu and other local government areas.
“Asking people, who are not comfortable with the planned appointment of a non-indigene Mayor of Aba to go and hit their heads on the wall, is unbecoming of a governor elected by the people and capable of causing civil unrest in Aba.
