Appeal Court Verdict on Ikpeazu of PDP and Otti of APGA: Protests rock Aba

Thousands of protesters stormed major streets in Aba, Abia State yesterday protesting the verdict of the Court of Appeal, which December 31st, sacked Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered that Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) be swornin as governor.
This is even as APGA described those protesting the court judgement as “the real enemies” of Abia state, with PDP vehemently denied sponsoring them.
The protesters who thronged the streets of Aba, the commercial nerve-centre of the state, expressed sadness with the court judgement, which ordered that APGA candidate in the April 11, 2015, governorship poll, Alex Otti, should be sworn-in as the dulyelected governor, to replace Ikpeazu.
Prominent among the leaders of the protesters was former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara.
However, APGA Chairman in the state, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, in a press statement yesterday, flayed the activities of the protesters, dismissing them as “some miscreants who attempted to cause a breach of the peace in the commercial city of Aba”.
Ehiemere alleged that the protests were sponsored by “the enemies of the state, who wished to remain in power against the wishes of the people”.
The APGA boss accused the PDP government in the state of “recruiting street urchins in Aba, to forment trouble by blocking some roads in the city, just to create a false impression that the people of the state were unhappy with the judgment of the Court of Appeal”.
He further dismissed the protests as “inconsequential”, stressing that “the protests further expose the sponsors as the enemies of the good people of Abia state”.
According to the APGA boss, “the judgment was well received and celebrated by well-meaning people of Abia. The news about the judgment sparked widespread jubilations across the state. Abia people are wiser and could not be deceived by PDP’s antics.
“The judgment has ended the era of looting and restored the people’s hope that our children will graduate and get befitting jobs rather than ‘Keke’ business; that our schools and hospitals should be equipped and that our public water schemes down should function again”.
Ehiemere called on the security agencies in the state to rise to the challenge and take steps to forestall any further breakdown of law and order in the state.
However, in a swift reaction, the chairman of PDP in Abia state, Senator Emma Nwaka, denied that the protests were sponsored by his party, maintaining they were spontaneous reaction to “travesty of justice”.
According to him, “it is only a mischief maker that can allege that the mayhem in Abia state was instigated by PDP, which I head. The demonstrations were spontaneous reaction of Abians to a perverse judgment which certainly will be upturned at the Supreme Court”.