The Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) has slammed former Abia state governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu for failing to fulfill a promise he made to the family of late human rights activist, Comrade Chima Ubani.
Speaking at a remembrance rally in honour of the departed activist in Aba, Abia state yesterday, CLO’s Executive Director, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezike said it is regrettable that the former governor failed to keep to the promise he made in 2005 about taking care of the family Ubani left behind as well as honour him before leaving office.
“You will recall that at Chima Ubani’s graveside at Obete Umuoha in Obingwa LGA during his burial in 2005, Abia state government pledged to take care of Chima’s family and honour him as a great Nigerian of Abia state extraction. The pledge was announced on behalf of the then governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu by the late Deputy Governor of the state, Dr. Chima Nwafor.
“Unfortunately, nine years after, neither the previous nor the present government of the state has made any efforts to respect a pledge to deceased son while Lagos state government paid for the mortuary expenses, donated a befitting three bedroom flat and a giant generator to Ubani’s family and awarded full scholarship from nursery to university level for two of Ubani’s children.
“Despite repeated appeals by the CLO to urge the government to respect
its own pledge, no efforts, not even a reply to our letters has been
made. It is a show of shame that Ubani who lived and died for fighting
the cause of the less privileged can be treated like this by his own people and government. If it were elsewhere, not only Abia but he entire South East governments ought to have picked the domestic responsibilities of the Ubanis,” Ezike lamented.
247ureports.com reports that Ubani lost his life in a ghastly auto-crash along Potiskum- Yobe Expressway on September 21, 2005, on his way to Maiduguri while mobilizing against fuel price hike by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
