Streets of Umuahia, Abia State capital was on Saturday, taken over by over 1000 widows dressed in all-back attire. The women who said they belonged to an umbrella body known as The Cry Of The Widows Network, held long sticks during their march around the city. Initially, Umuahia residents presumed the women to have arrived from Uturu community where a Labour Party chieftain, Maduka Zachary was beheaded recently.
But it later turned out that the came into Umuahia from all over the State. They were singing and calling upon God to intervene in the affairs of Abia State as according to them, evil persons have allegedly concluded plans to snatch the leadership of Abia State from Governor Alex Otti and his Labour Party.
According to the widows, enemies of good governance were out to remove good governance and install evil leadership in Abia State through the alleged plots against Otti and legislators elected on the platform of the LP. They said that the victory of Otti and his LP were in line with the prayers to God before the 2023 general polls.
The widows who took to different parts of Umuahia during their march, said they did liberation prayers at Okpara Square round about to nullify evil rituals and blood tasty sacrifices allegedly performed around the junction by evil men in the State. One of them, Mrs Nneoma Ogbonna said they came from the 17 LGAs of the State to engage in the libration prayers, adding that the group which is a unifying body for widows in Abia had been in existence even before the 2023 polls. They further denied the allegations that they were protesting against the sack of civil servants by Governor Alex Otti, saying that such stories were totally false. The widows however, appealed to Governor Otti to remember them and their appointments, employment and in provision of foods, to enable them survive the harsh Nigerian economic conditions. The Cry Of The Widows Network group lamented that most of them were going through untold persecution in the hands of their in-laws after their husband’s deaths, begged the Governor to provide free legal services for them as well as prosecute any wicked in-law snatching their late husbands’ properties. They further condemned the killings, kidnappings and other forms of criminality being experienced in Abia and prayed God to curse those troubling the peace of Abia.
