Commissioners and other members of the Executive Council of Abia State under the aegis of Abia State EXCO Forum say they are happy and satisfied working in the administration of Governor Theodore Orji who, they explain, has been doing everything possible to better their welfare.

The Forum was reacting to a statement credited to an ex-governor of the state, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who was quoted to have said that his return to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was informed by complaints to him by the commissioners and members of the state House of Assembly that “they were getting nothing.”

The Forum comprises the Secretary to the State Government, all the commissioners, Chief of Staff to the Governor and the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Addressing newsmen yesterday in the state capital Umuahia, the Forum frowned at the statement credited to Kalu, describing it as a smear campaign aimed at sowing discord in the Forum and, by extension, the Abia polity. They, therefore, called on Kalu to retract his statement and tender an unreserved apology to the group.

Their position was contained in a six-point communiqué read by Chairman of the Forum and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Umeh Kalu.

“No Commissioner or any EXCO member for that matter, serving in the administration of Governor T. A. Orji (Ochendo) has had any cause, whatsoever, to think or, even feel he or she is ‘not getting anything,” part of the communiqué read.

It added: “Contrary to Orji Uzor Kalu’s mischief-inspired insinuation, each commissioner and, indeed each member of the EXCO Forum enjoys unprecedented job satisfaction arising from his or her appointment as the conditions of service prevalent in governor T. A. Orji’s appointment are superlatively incomparable to what obtained during the eight dark years of Kalu’s coercive, discriminatory and exploitative rule in the state.”

The Forum said that their members and other political appointees in Abia serving under Governor T. A. Orji “hold the Governor very high for many reasons, including not demanding any bribe from them or subjecting them to any sort of fetish oath-taking before being appointed unlike what was clearly part of the unwritten requirements that subsisted during the Orji Uzor Kalu’svery unfortunate retrogressive era.”

Two commissioners, Mazi Donatus Okorie and Chief Don Ubani, both of whom also served as a commissioner and Special Adviser during the Kalu era, corroborated that their welfare under the incumbent government was far better than what obtained during the past administration of Kalu.

The Forum called on Kalu to leave the administration of Governor T. A. Orji alone, saying he has done far better in all ramifications than other past governors of the state.

•Photo shows some members of the Abia EXCO Forum