Abia State Governor Alex Otti has announced that the state will no longer punish citizens for speaking out publicly.
He noted that in the past, Abian citizens who spoke out against the State’s poor conditions were purportedly locked up for weeks or months simply for expressing their views.
On Sunday, at the Rhema University Auditorium in Aba, during the commemoration of the 74th birthday of President, Living Word/Chancellor, Rhema University, Bro Emma Okorie, Otti made this statement, vowing that such evil practises would have no place in the new Abia State he is constructing as governor.
He said that his government would not violate the rights of any Abian since doing so would be against the law, and that everyone in the State, just like people in other countries, deserved to be treated with the same level of respect and decency.
He assured the crowd that his administration was committed to completing the restoration of Abia for God’s glory and shared news that a comprehensive design of Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia, had been delivered to his office by a reputable firm. He promised that the city of Aba and the rest of the state would soon sport fresh new facades.
Abia Governor Uche Nwosu congratulated Bro. Emma Okorie on his 74th birthday and thanked him for his contributions to Abia’s GDP (gross domestic product) through the hiring of over 5,000 people at Living Word Hospitals and Rhema University, among other institutions.
Okorie, in welcoming Governor Otti, his wife Mrs. Priscilla Otti, and his entourage, had earlier said that he had always known a day like this would come because he had always worked by faith and not by sight, and that God is using the Governor to reposition Abia for greatness in accordance with the visions of Dr. Michael Okpara, the former premier of the defunct Eastern Nigeria region.
