Deputy Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Allwell Asiforo Okere has escaped being attacked by his kinsmen over the sharing of One Hundred Naira (N100) and bowls of rice to them.
Trouble started for the deputy speaker who is on his third stint as the lawmaker representing Ukwa East state constituency when he brought some bags of rice to fete his Ohuru Ndoki kinsmen who were gathered at the village square.
According to an eyewitness account, an aide to the deputy speaker directed his kinsmen including women to queue up with waterproof bags to receive their share. As the rice was being shared, the aide to Okere announced to the crowd gathered at the occasion that those who have gotten their share of the rice should stand in groups of five each where he also started giving them N500 per group.
As the news went round the community which attracted more youths to the village square, the ‘quality of the gift’ was said to have angered the youths of the community who were watching the deputy speaker supervising the distribution of the rice and N100 per person. Some of the youths lost their cool and made to attack Okere but were held back by others who pleaded with the deputy speaker to leave the scene.
The irate youths later disrupted the sharing of the rice and vowed that none of the recipients would leave the scene with the rice which they splashed on the ground and marched on it.
One of the youths who spoke to our correspondent said, “How can Asiforo Okere who has been representing us since 2003 give N100 and a bowl of rice each to our people? This is the height of wickedness to treat us in this manner. He has been the deputy speaker of the House since the last tenure but have we benefitted from him as his kinsmen? We decided to spread the rice on the floor and marched on it so that nobody will go home with it. We would have dealt with him but for our elders. This will teach him a lesson.”
247ureports.com gathered that the deputy speaker has become so unpopular in his community that the youths vowed to revolt if he was given the PDP ticket to re-contest for the Ukwa East state Assembly seat in 2015. Okere is also said not to be in good terms most leaders in the Ukwa East including the former senate president, Chief Adolf Wabara over his poor representation of the constituency.
“His loss as the recently held PDP state Assembly primaries threw the constituency into ecstasy,” a source added.
