Senior Special Assistant to Governor Alex Otti on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, has responded sharply to recent statements by the Abia State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Chijioke Chukwu, describing them as inaccurate, uninformed, and disconnected from the realities of governance in the state.
In a statement issued on March 21, 2026, Ekeoma addressed Chukwu’s claims during a recent engagement in Ikwuano Local Government Area, where the APC chairman criticised the Labour Party administration for alleged poor performance and lack of development.
Ekeoma highlighted what he described as inconsistencies in Chukwu’s political record and public statements. He noted that Chukwu had previously expressed strong support for figures within the APC, including during his time as a candidate for the Abia State House of Assembly, before shifting positions after achieving electoral success.
The media aide disputed Chukwu’s assertion that the APC played a decisive role in Governor Otti’s emergence as governor in 2023, pointing out that Chukwu had publicly backed the APC governorship candidate, High Chief Ikechi Emelike, in that election.
Ekeoma defended the Otti administration’s fiscal and salary management record, rejecting claims that previous governments faced similar challenges due to lower federal allocations.
Ekeoma also addressed Chukwu’s comments on “consequential adjustment” of salaries, clarifying that it is a standard practice following minimum wage increases to maintain salary relativity across grades.
He explained that the mechanism ensures senior employees continue to earn more than junior staff after wage reviews and is negotiated with labour unions, a process routinely followed under the current administration.
The governor’s aide expressed concern over what he termed Chukwu’s apparent lack of awareness of these established procedures, describing it as unfortunate to use limited understanding to criticise progressive reforms.
Ekeoma further emphasised that Governor Otti’s appointees, many of whom have professional experience from Lagos, Abuja, and other major cities, have been selected for competence and are delivering results that matter to Abians.
He contrasted this with Chukwu’s unsuccessful 2023 House of Assembly bid in Bende North, suggesting that local residency alone does not determine political relevance or effectiveness.
Full Statement
Separating Dishonesty and Ignorance from Abia APC's Comedy
Chijioke Chukwu's emergence as the Abia State Chairman of APC was exciting to me, for two reasons. One, he is my brother and friend. Secondly and the most important, I know his capacity and can predict that his leadership will be calamitous for the APC in Abia, thus giving us some advantage. You can see why I am happy.
I'm not surprised that he has got off on the wrong foot. I knew it would happen, though it's happening quite too early.
Before his emergence as a House of Assembly member a few years ago, Mr. Chukwu was ready to lick the ground marched on by Senator Kalu and his family members. The sycophancy was out of this world, because my brother wanted to go to House of Assembly. The fake loyalty later expired after he actualised his ambition.
Until a few weeks ago, he had been launching verbal missiles at the same Senator Kalu as a sycophantic strategy to please, impress and win the support of the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu. He didn't take into consideration the fact that they all belong to the same political party. So you can see that my brother lacks emotional intelligence and suffers from diarrhea of the mouth.
Chijioke was the APC Bende North House of Assembly Candidate in the last election and failed woefully. In that election, his support for their party's Governorship Candidate, High Chief Ikechi Emelike was public knowledge, because it was Chief Emelike that made his candidacy possible, yet, he was telling his shocked party men and women yesterday that they were the ones that made Otti Governor. What kind of agharigha is that?
Chijioke is justifying non-performance and non-payment of salary in the past, because according to him, allocation then was smaller than what it is today. By making such poor and inept analysis, he presented himself not just as a dishonest and uninformed person, but as a lover of mediocrity who is willing and committed to embracing mediocre template in the governance of Abia, as long as it would serve his personal political interest.
How could a normal person say that over 70% of the states of the federation were owing salary like Ikpeazu, just because you want to prove to the blind that Otti's giant strides in that area do not matter.
Can you mention those states that were owing salary and pension then?
Like some other desperate opposition comedians, Chijioke has moved from "Otti is receiving 38 billion a month to Otti is receiving 60 billion". What a ridiculous way to be an opposition.
You are quick to remind us that allocation has increased, but intentionally withhold the fact that that under Otti, there's nothing like Core and non-core civil servants in Abia anymore.
You are unaware that tens of billions of naira have been spent in the payment of years of salary and pension arrears.
You intentionally refused to mention that unlike the former government that claimed that the population of Abia workforce was 30,000, Governor Otti is presently paying almost times two of that number.
Unlike the previous government that refused to implement the 30,000 naira minimum wage approved by the then Federal Government, Governor Otti was one of the first Governors that implemented the New Minimum Wage of 70,000 naira and has religiously paid it on or before the 28th of every month.
As we speak, the government is about to commence the payment of Gratuity arrears owed between 2001 and today. At the end of verification the amount stood at 61 billion naira. I can't remember hearing Chijioke criticise these atrocious injustice against Abia pensioners.
Chijioke and other APC members making reckless allegations against Governor Otti are so disconnected and disillusioned to the point of not knowing that under Otti, thousands of Teachers and Health workers have been recruited into the state civil service through the most transparent recruitment exercises that no one ever saw in the past. No body pays a dime, no body is defrauded, and no body is abused before getting employed.
In what left some educated party men and women in shock yesterday, Chijioke Chukwu disclosed that he didn't know the meaning of "Consequential Adjustments" until Otti became Governor. Chijioke ridiculously thought he was throwing a demeaning jab at the government.
It's not a crime to be ignorant, therefore no one is expected to begrudge or even laugh at the Abia APC Chairman for not knowing the meaning of Consequential Adjustment, but it's both appalling and scandalous for one to deploy his ignorance as a weapon of mockery against those that are better than him. It's sad that Chijioke thought that consequential adjustment was Governor Otti's creation for the purpose of shortchanging Abia Workers.
My dear brother "consequential adjustment of salary is the upward revision of salaries for employees earning above the minimum wage, enacted immediately following a rise in the national minimum wage. It is designed to maintain a fair and equitable salary structure—known as relativity—ensuring that senior employees still earn significantly more than junior staff, rather than all employees earning the same new minimum wage".
It's a normal practice for government representatives to sit down with the representatives of relevant Labour Unions and agree on the modalities for the implementation of Minimum Wage and the necessary Consequential Adjustments.
Like the saying goes "If you make a mad man a conductor, he would resort to waving at everyone and every everything he sees".
Chijioke needs to be reminded that he is not more Abian than those government appointees he is struggling to ridicule, just because they lived in Lagos and Abuja before their appointment. If living in the village is the yardstick for being popular and relevant, why did he fail woefully in 2023? The most important thing to Abians is that their Governor hired the right persons across board and that they are delivering.
From all indications, the APC Chairman is desperate to impress those who made him Chairman, hence his resolve to regularly fabricate and spew all kinds of gibberish against the government and the Governor unfortunately, he doesn't pay attention to the reactions of Abia people who see and describe them as a group of comedians struggling to entertain the wrong audience.
Abia under Governor Alex Otti has moved on and never to return to the mediocre standard Chijioke and co are used to.
Ferdinand Ekeoma
March 21, 2026.