The last-minute activities of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu have continued to generate reactions, especially from the governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti.
After his defeat at the poll, Ikpeazu began by reconstituting the Governing Council of the Abia State College of Health Science and Management Technology, Aba, with Eme Okoro, the immediate past secretary to the state government (SSG) named the chairman.
Similarly, Ikpeazu reconstituted the Abia State Civil Service Commission with Dr Mrs Elizabeth Esochaghi as chairman, while also confirming the appointment of Associate Professor,Haglar Okorie as the substantive rector of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba.
Consequently, the Labour Party has accused the governor of “employment racketeering,” alleging that some agents of the state government and some civil servants were engaged in the deal.
The party, in a statement, described the so-called employments into the civil service as illegal, saying they have evidence of the state giving out employment letters and back-dating them.
But in a response to these allegations, Governor Ikpeazu said he was not aware of any form of employment racketeering into the Abia State public service.
Ikpeazu said it was important to remind the governor-elect that there is a government fully in place with executive powers to run the affairs of the state.
“It is absolutely preposterous and outright anachronistic for the governor-elect to use the word, illegal to describe the activities of a government that is legitimately in office.
Assuming, though by no means conceding that the state government offered employment to Abians, what is illegal about it?” he queried.
He said Dr Otti should also be reminded that every governor-elect is a potential former governor, saying, “At most, and if God permits , he will spend eight years in office, and while still in office, his successor will be elected too.”
