Aba Residents Berate Gov Orji

More facts have
emerged on how Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, was disgraced and booed in the commercial city of Aba during the burial of the pioneer Catholic Bishop of the Aba Diocese, Most Rev. Vincent Valentine Ezeonyia, last Friday.
Incensed by utter neglect of the city by the governor since he took over the reins of power in the state in 2007, the citizens, who numbered in their thousands, literally poured their pent-up frustration and venom on him.
But for the security cordon thrown around him  Abia State and indeed Nigeria would have witnessed an unprecedented ugly spectacle.
Part of the grouse of the mob that surged towards him immediately he entered the cathedral of  the Christ the King Church, where the holy high mass for the burial of the Bishop was being
held, was his effrontery in coming to the city after neglecting it since he assumed power in 2007, and for his legendary woeful performance in office.
Not even pleas and entreaties from the clergymen could pacify the enraged crowd.
Amidst the confusion and cacophony of noises, there were clear chants of disenchantment and derision.
Some of the chants, which soared above all others, were: ‘Betrayer’, ‘Judas Iscariot.’
‘Despite all that Orji Kalu did for you, you betrayed him and ended with very poor performance in office for eight years’, ‘Go back home’, ‘We don’t need you here’.
Efforts by officials of the church to manage the situation by appealing for restraint, and deploying religious sentiments for effect largely failed, as such entreaties angered the people the  more and temporarily held up the event for tempers to calm down.
Some of the people who spoke to newsmen said they were happy and somehow relieved that the people told governor in clear and unmistaken terms that they were tired of his lethargic and uninspiring performance in office.
They said, “After neglecting the city completely, he had the audacity to come here, thinking that his security and the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) would save him. Orji Uzor Kalu’s legacies, especially on road construction in the city have been rubbished. He abandoned the city totally. We are waiting for April 11 to pay him back”.