The Aba Ngwa People’s Forum met today, 13th December 2023, to express our disappointment and utter shock at the sponsored rumour doing the rounds and on Social Media, that some indigenes of Aba Ngwa, whose identities the sponsors of the rumours have been unable to disclose, demanded money from the government of Abia State, as a precondition for the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road by Julius Berger.
In a statement signed by Comrade Chimezie Nwagba-President and Architect Chinedu Ahuruonye-Secretary reads thus:
” We view this ploy as a cheap blackmail and aimed at abandoning the road using the non-existing demand as an escape route. Laughably, this is one ploy that’s dead on arrival”.
“We wonder how such a non-existing demand, made a few days ago has stopped the reconstruction of the road that was flagged off about three months ago. Isn’t it laughable also that some people are trying to be smart by half, thinking that Abians are fools’?
“We learnt, from the social media without any refute from the government that some arrests were made in connection with the said demands allegedly coming from us, yet up till now, the identities of the so-called Ngwa People who made such obnoxious demands have not been made known to the public. Could it be that those who were allegedly arrested were ghosts’?
“We also wonder why work is still not ongoing on the road even after the purported arrests were made. We are convinced that some people are trying to paint the Ngwa race as an anti-development people just to abandon Port Harcourt Road”.
*Because of the above, we the Aba Ngwa People’s Forum unequivocally state as follows that:*
(1) We condemn the cheap blackmail orchestrated against us and curse all those behind it.
(2) We demand that the identities of those who were purportedly arrested be made public for proper scrutiny.
(3) We are disappointed that the Abia State government which is good at refuting many things is unable to refute this unfortunate absurdity simply because the Ngwa are involved.
(4) We ask the government of Abia State to come clean and tell the world what is delaying the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road, Aba and desist from using us as decoys for unserious or snail-pace projects.
(5) As progressive-minded people, we will continue to support every effort at building and restoring Infrastructure in Aba, and can NEVER be a cog in the wheel of development of Aba, our beautiful land and Abia State in general, knowing that we stand to benefit most when Aba roads are built because we have no other home than Aba.
(6) We therefore call on all the residents of Aba to disregard the sponsored blackmail against our people because we are more eager to see our land fully developed than any other person.
(7) We equally use this medium to unequivocally call on the Abia State government to clear the air that this fake news never happened.
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