The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the 2019 election in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has appealed to civil servants and retirees from the public sector in the state, not to lose hope as they await payment of their salaries and pension by the state government.
Otti in a goodwill Christmas message to the citizens of Abia State said that though Christmas symbolises the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, it is ordinarily a season of joy, sharing and giving of gifts by adherents of the Christian faith in particular and the world over.
He however lamented the ugly fate that have befallen the Abia people and specifically, civil servants and pensioners. "As I make this statement, thousands of our people in the civil service are being owed several months in arrears of their hard-earned salaries. Same goes for our aged pensioners, who have not been paid for over 13 months", he regretted.
The APGA gubernatorial candidate, who spoke through the director media and publicity of his campaign organisation, Mr. Kazie Uko, said he often wondered how the incumbent governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, managed to sleep, knowing too well that numerous of the people he swore on oath to protect are languishing, due mainly to the fact that they cannot fulfil their obligations to their families and dependents.
Otti enjoined the Abia people to say, 'enough is enough', to PDP's regime of oppression and intimidation which has stagnated the progress and prosperity of the people and the State for close to 20 years.
"Ndi Abia, it is high time we resisted the devil so that he will flee from us. The bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ came that we may have life and have it more abundantly; but that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. What we have witnessed in Abia State in the last 20 years is the devil at his worst. We cannot afford another four years of PDP and their reign of economic hardship, occasioned by mindless looting of our common wealth", Otti warned.
He observed that for Abia State to join the league of progressive states, like Anambra and her neighbours in the South East and South South, citizens of the state should vote APGA in the forthcoming election. "A vote for APGA is a vote for Alex Otti; it's a vote for progress; a vote for prosperity; a vote for development; a vote for the security of lives and prosperity; it's a vote to move Abia State forward", he declared.
