By Chikaodi Chukwuleta
Political appointees who served under former Governor Willie Obiano have threatened to work against the incumbent governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2025 gubernatorial election if he fails to pay their severance allowances within this month.
Making this known at a town-hall meeting held at Awka, on Tuesday, the aggrieved appointees said the ultimatum became necessary since the governor has not responded positively to the requests they made to him personally and through various stakeholders.
A good number of them, including former commissioner’s, Senior Special Advisers(SPAD), Senior Special Assistants(SSAs), Special Assistants(SAs) and Executive Assistants(EAs) who spoke at the meeting expressed displeasure over the governor’s failure to acknowledge their selfless services to the state and the risk they took to ensure his emergence as governor in 2021.
They stated that some died in the process of struggling to see that Soludo emerged governor, while others died either because of hunger, terminal diseases or insecurity after the election due to his refusal to pay their several allowances.
The convener ASFP and former SSA to Obiano, Chief Onyeka Owelle Mbaso assured that although they had met with necessary stakeholders, including Governor Soludo to no avail, they would continue to press on before they would finally join one of many political parties bigwigs showing interest in paying at least 150% of the severance allowances.
Chief Mbaso, who was the pioneer chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the United Kingdom, recalled that the governor’s comments during their meetings last year showed that he saw their efforts towards his election as insignificance, even as politicians from other political parties had hijacked APGA from the ‘real’ members, and currently running it aground.
He urged members to be resolute and faithful, promising to continue rejecting all attempts to buy him over with either political offers or money until they achieve their aims
