Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
After a barrage of attacks and insults allegedly targeted at opposition politicians by the Abia State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Eze Chikamnayo, the opposition parties have risen against him, calling on the state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, to sack the government spokesman barely three weeks after his appointment.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), whose leaders have been taken to the cleaners by Chikamnayo, is spearheading the campaign for his removal.
APGA’s demand for the commissioner’s sack was contained in a statement issued by the state Chairman of the party, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, noting that it was a mistake for Ikpeazu to have appointed “somebody who is carrying a baggage of
image problem to be the image maker of the state.
“APGA, therefore, calls for the immediate removal and or resignation of Chikamnayo as the Abia State commissioner based on his “immoral and unholy disposition which can only build additional rejection of the current administration by Abia citizens if he remains as the information commissioner in the state,” Ehiemere said.
Chikamanyo, who was appointed as information commissioner for the third time since 1999, appeared to have put the wrong foot forward this time around by attacking persons instead of addressing issues raised by the opposition.
The opposition politicians, who said the government spokesman has descended heavily on them, calling them unprintable names and impugning their characters, included the APGA state chairman, Ehiemere, and the state leader of the party, Hon Obinna Ichita, as well as Mr. Alex Otti, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). They all courted Chikamnayo’s invectives for calling on Governor Ikpeazu to look into the issue of nonpayment of workers and pensioners as well as poor infrastructure.
But Ehièmere noted that in 1999 when he was not in government, Chikamnayo had lampooned Governor Ikpeazu over the same issue of unpaid salaries and pensions, adding that since Chikamnayo was brought into government, he is singing a new song.
“We are very much aware that Chikamnayo, the information commissioner, have always looked for his stomach infrastructure, and in his desperate moves to achieve same, he adopted his style of blackmail to attract recognition from the state government,” the Abia State APGA chairman stated.
According to him, “Ikpeazu had succumbed to blackmail and antics of Chikamnayo hence “his current appointment as the information commissioner in the state, even when he is grossly incompetent and morally bankrupt to be the image maker of the state.”
The state APGA chairman also hit back at the commissioner for describing the party as “factionalised and dead,” reminding him that APGA has no faction either in Abia or at the national level and currently enjoys massive support in the Southeast and “remains formidable in Abia State.”
