From James Ndubuisi Nwakpa
_1.jpg)
The Ebonyi State governor, Engr. David Umahi has debunked the allegation of using the military to flog civil servants in the state, against the reports that were spread both in the conventional and social media platforms.
Governor Umahi refuted the allegation through the state commissioner for information and orientation, Barr. Uchenna Orji said that the purported footage showing the act of brutality on civil servants in the state was a video manipulation of an aborted attempt by miscreants to block the airport gate and inflict fear on those working at the ongoing international airport and possibly embarrass the governor who was on a routine inspection visit to the airport project, in the guise that they were enforcing sit-at-home order at the premises of the airport on Tuesday, 4th October 2022.
The commissioner in a communiqué issued to the press in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi state capital, recalled that the miscreants had in the past tried to attack those working at the airport site but their plots were neutralized.
Barr. Orji who expressed surprise at the basis of what he described as the unintelligent fabrications of the mischief makers, noted that contrary to the fake report that the incident happened at the gate of the Government House in Abakaliki while the governor was on supervision, the miscreants were dispelled at the gate of the new airport under construction, adding that no civil servants or employees whatsoever have been recruited to work in the airport and so, no civil servant was flogged at the airport gate, as contained in the trending reports.
The commissioner, therefore, advised members of the public to disregard the rumoured brutality on civil servants as it was the handiwork of the enemies of progress in the state, and reiterated the commitments of Governor Umahi to ensure massive development of the state.
Recall that the People's Democratic Party in Ebonyi State had earlier alleged that Governor Umahi ordered the gate of the airport to be closed while he inspects the flogging of the civil servants when he arrived at the construction site at about 7:30 am, as contained in the Facebook post made by the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Chika Nwoba and spread to other media platforms.
