Ayade Sacks Aide Over Unprovoked Attack On PDP Chieftain

Following an unprovoked attack by the Special Adviser to Governor Ben Ayade on Forestry Security, Thomas Obi Tawo, popularity known as ‘General Iron, who was alleged to have brutally assaulted and inflicted severe injuries on a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former Special Adviser to the Governor on Administration, Rt. Hon. Mark Obi, the Governor has sent him packing.
A press statement made available to The Tide in Calabar, and signed by the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Media/Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, did not however, disclose why Tawo was sacked.
The release reads in part, “The State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, has approved the sack with immediate effect of Mr. Thomas Obi Tawo, aka General Iron, the Special Adviser on Forestry Security.
“Consequently, he is hereby directed to hand over government property in his care to the office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor.”
Recall that Rt. Hon. Obi escaped death by whiskers last week after his home in Oku Bushuyu, Boki was invaded by gunmen. ‘General Iron’ and his men were suspected to have attacked Obi.
Some residents of the area who spoke feared the attack may not be unconnected with the rivalry between Rt. Hon. Obi and Tawo over the Borum Oil Palm Estate, while some believed that Obi’s refusal to defect to the APC may have attracted the animosity.
Obi, a two-term member of the State House of Assembly under the PDP umbrella and had, early last month, resigned from Governor Ayade’s administration saying he would not leave his party to the APC like his colleagues in the cabinet were doing.
Unconfirmed reports said military men had taken over the area in search of ‘General Iron’ and his men who may have been on the run, considering the level of opposition to their action.
A source close to Obi’s family said Tawo would be paid back with his coins.
Incidentally, Rt . Hon Obi has two of his sons in the military while his elder brother, General Moses Obi  Rtd: also has two more officers serving.
General Obi was the Commander of the United Nations Peace Mission in Sudan, as well as General Officer Commanding First Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna. 
Reliable sources from the area told The Tide on the phone that angry military men in the community had already pulled down Tawo’s two-story building and we’re ransacking the community looking for the  ‘General Iron .’

By: Friday Nwagbara, Calabar