…Old Aba Division insists that power will not go to Old Bende Division
…T. A Orji supported Ikpeazu for selfish reason, not for equity – Don Ubani
An Igbo adage says “obu so anu ji eze ari elu na ama osisi na enu inu” (it is only animals that climb trees with their teeth that can dictate a tree with a bitter stem).
Whenever Sir Don Ubani, Deputy Chief of Staff in the office of the Deputy Governor of Abia State speaks on a matter concerning the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), many people listen because he has been there from the formation stage to where the party is now.
Ubani who has served in different governments and different capacities under the PDP is known for his usual open letters and this time around, he has as usual written to express his view concerning who becomes the next Governor of the State and the much talked about Abia Charter of Equity.
Ubani’s recent letter, however, may be more effective than all he has written considering the content and those he tried to push for public discussion and the reactions that have followed it.
According to the letter obtained by News Echo, Ubani who hails from Asa in Ukwa West Local Government Area said that the Abia North Senatorial zone has no right to demand that the Governorship sit come back to them in the name of equity because there has never been any form of equity in Abia Governorship contest.
Ubani in his letter lampooned a former Secretary to Abia State Government, Dr. Eme Okoro who hails from Abia North for demanding an apology from the state Chairman of PDP, Hon. Asiforo Okere for failing to attend a meeting of Abia North PDP stakeholders where they were to discuss equity.
He vehemently insisted that the Abia Charter of Equity was meant to be followed according to the original political blocs in the state: Old Bende Division and the Old Aba Division. He said that those linking the Abia Charter of Equity as an agreement to distribute power between the three Senatorial zones are not telling the truth.
News Echo reports that out of the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia State, the Old Bende has 8 which include Arochukwu, Ohafia, Umuahia North, Umuahia South, Ikwuano, Isuikwuato, Bende and Umunneochi. The Old Aba Division popularly known as the Ukwa-Ngwa has 9 which are Aba North, Aba South, Osisioma, Isiala-Ngwa South, Isiala-Ngwa North, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and Ukwa West.
However, there is one area causing problems today in Abia political divisions. Three out of the nine LGAs of Old Aba Division: Osisioma, Isiala-Ngwa South and North and three out of the eight LGAs of the Old Bende Division: Ikwuano, Umuahia North and South were merged to form a Senatorial Zone called Abia Central.
Ubani said that in 2007 when the immediate past Governor Theodore Orji who hails from Umuahia North LGA took over from his predecessor Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu who hails from Bende LGA, the Old Bende PDP stakeholders kept quiet, without reminding their people that Abia has only two political blocs.
“Let me take the Crux of the matter of Dr. Eme Okoro’s threats and lamentations. The first is the issue of the Abia Charter of Equity. Without any waste of time, I would like to remind Dr. Eme Okoro that it was the People of Old Bende, himself conspicuously inclusive, that erased the Abia Charter of Equity from the political register of Abia State.
“If Governor Orji Uzor Kalu had, as he was expected, handed over the reigns of power to someone from Old Aba Division in 2007, the question of power rotation should not have been an issue in the State today. It simply would be rotating between Old Bende Division and Old Aba Division.
“Nobody should hide under the administrative creation of Senatorial Districts to play down on the reality of the Two major Blocs in the State. If Okezie Ikpeazu, for instance, had chosen his running mate from Isialangwa or Osisioma areas of Abia-Central Senatorial District in 2019, the People of Old Bende Division would have seriously protested against it because they know that, despite the creation of Senatorial Districts, Governor Ikpeazu is of the same Bloc with them.
“It was Dr. Eme Okoro and his likes in Old Bende that forgot that no condition is permanent that selfishly thwarted the intended directions and workings of Abia Charter of Equity.”
Ubani went further to say that Former Governor Theodore Orji who is currently the Senator representing Abia Central never supported the incumbent Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu on the platform of equity for Abia South Senatorial Zone, stressing that Orji supported Ikpeazu so that the Old Aba Division in Abia Central will vote for him to become a Senator.
“Some people, merely out of pretentious amnesia, claim that the immediate past Governor, Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji, gave impetus to the concept of Equity in the State by assisting the present Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, PhD, emerge in 2015.
“Personally, I have never been convinced that Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji’s support was born purely out of altruism and patriotism. I am sure if Governor Orji was not interested in going to the Senate in 2015, nothing on earth would have made him support an Ngwa Man to become Governor.
“He did it because he knew that without Ngwa votes in Abia Central Senatorial District, nothing on earth would have made him go to the Senate.”
Ubani further said that those talking about equity should also recall that in that same 2015 governorship election in Abia State was, Dr. Alex Otti from Arochukwu Local Government Area did contest the election and was not prevented from doing so adding that in 2019, the case was not different.
“So, where lies the equity Dr..Eme Okoro is talking about, even after he had deliberately killed it? The voting pattern of the people of Old Bende in both 2015 and 2019 leaves no one with any iota of doubt on the wishes and sentiments of the People of Old Bende towards their now claimed equity.
“Dr. Eme Okoro’s alleged demand for power rotation to Abia-North is, by my own assessment, an unwarranted calculated vain attempt to deride and insult the collective intelligence and sensibilities of the peoples of Old Aba Division.
“By his alleged acrimony, what Dr. Eme Okoro and those on the same boat with him are fruitlessly wishing to achieve is an inexplicable governorship score card of 24 years for Old Bende of only eight Local Government Council Areas and a humiliating and most insulting and embarrassing 8 years for the entire Old Aba Division ( Ukwa La Ngwa), that has 9 Local Government Council Areas, with five of them being the Economic Hub of the State.”
As if the above letter which was written on the 25th January 2022 with the title: “Must Dr. Eme Okoro Fume To Make His Point” is not enough damage to the PDP, Sir Don Ubani proceeded to write another the next day, 26th January 2022 with the title: “My Simple And Honest Response To Dr. Eme Okoro’s Reply And Conveyance Of Threat To My Life From The Quarters Of An Ex-Governor Of Abia State.”
In the new letter, Ubani alleged that Former Governor Theodore Orji and his son, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji who is currently the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly is threatening his life for insisting that power should stay in the Old Aba Division and not be moved to any part of Old Bende be it Abia North or the Old Bende Division in Abia Central.
Ubani who was reacting to the statement made by the Chief Liaison Officer to the Senator Theodore Orji, Mr. Ifeanyi Umere who warned him to stop insulting his principal and said that, “Any more mention of the name of the Most Distinguished Senator by him will be visited with more brash response from the office of the Senator,” said he is not afraid of Senator Orji and his son.
News Echo further looked into Umere’s reply to Ubani where he described the allegation that Theodore Orji supported Ikpeazu for selfish reasons as a careless and unwitting insinuation aimed at causing disaffection among people of esteem.
He warned Ubani to desist from using the privilege of being part of the present administration to insult and demean the integrity and personality of Senator Orji.
He said, “My attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Deputy Chief of Staff in the office of the Deputy Governor wherein he carelessly and unwittingly insinuated that the Distinguished Senator transferred power to Abia South because of his interest to run for Senator.
“May I use this very auspicious medium to appeal to all men of good conscience to not only warn and caution the likes of Don Ubani serving in the present government but also to bring him to order to desist forthwith from insulting and demeaning the integrity, dignity and personality of a Statesman like Senator T. A. Orji so that he (Ubani) doesn’t cause and sow disaffection among people of esteem by insulting them without cause or provocation.
“This serves as the last warning to Ubani who has no integrity and will soon dump Governor Ikpeazu as soon as the rice or meal on the table is finished. Such has been his bane and antecedents.
“May this also be the last time the likes of Don Ubani serving in the present administration would be insulting and abusing elder statesmen and walk away freely and scotfree and unperturbed.
“Any more mention of the name of the Most Distinguished Senator will be visited with more brash response from the office of the Senator.”
In response to Umere’s statement, Ubani who is known for letters quickly replied and said, “On the threat to my Life by the immediate past Governor of Abia State and his son, through his Liaison Officer, I only want to say that their penchant for brutality and heinous activities are well known even in their nativity.
“Intelligence I have is that the son summoned and presided over a meeting last night, during which he gave money to his Cyber Bullies to unleash attacks on me.
“The Bullies were also instructed to recruit as many other Cyber Attackers as they could. He boastfully told them that he had an unimaginable amount of money to pay with.
“The same intelligence revealed that, with unbridled arrogance, he told his audience, that as long as money is concerned, nothing will deter him from being the next Governor of the State.
“He is ‘God’ and, so, has the power of Clairvoyance! Only time will prove if he is, indeed, God or not. The most important aspect of the Intelligence available to me is the plot to get me assassinated in Umuahia or elsewhere.
“I can not be cowed down by such machination. After all, the Ex-Governor and his son are not God, even though they think they have become God.
“In as much as I am not afraid of their resort to assassination or attack by their hired hoodlums, they should know, and quickly too, that they do not have the monopoly of violence and brutality.
“My own part of Asa is within Ariaria environ. Many people from the Ex-Governor’s place are living in my area. Of course, I have communicated this threat to my life to my people. I am not afraid.
He challenged anybody in Abia to prove to him what in his said write-up, which Theodore Orji reacted to that is a lie.
He further said that when Senatorial Districts were to be created in Abia State, Theodore Orji as an Administrative Officer in the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), did everything he thought he could do to make sure that only the two Local Government Areas of Isialangwa-North and Isialangwa-South would be part of Abia-Central Senatorial District to enable his Umuahia clan to control that Senatorial Zone in the future.
“Of course, what he wanted was to make sure the Ngwa Components of Abia-Central Senatorial District would be a perpetual minority to be electorally squeezed and suffocated by the three Local Government Areas of Ikwuano, Umuahia-North and Umuahia-South.
“But for the courageous intervention of a prominent Ngwa Son, Dr. Max Nduaguibe, who deployed benefits of his connection with the Shehu Yar’adua political machinery and included Osisioma-Ngwa in Abia-Central, no Ngwa Man would ever think of being a Senator from that Senatorial District. So, when did the desire for equity spring up in the Ex-Governor?
