From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki

Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, yesterday sacked all the technical assistants (TAs), senior technical assistants and all members of the management committees of all the development centres in Ivo Local Government Area where the former Senate president, Anyim Pius Anyim, hails from.

This is just as mixed reactions continued to trail an open letter written by the former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) to Umahi.

In a statement, yesterday, by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Kenneth Ugbala, directed the sacked appointees to hand over government property in their possessions to the SSG office before close of work yesterday.

Daily Sun gathered that Anyim’s letter released on Monday was in response to Governor Umahi’s allegation that he (Anyim), former governor Sam Egwu and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Vice Chairman, Ali Odefa, were planning to sponsor the Indigenous People of Biafra to unleash mayhem in the state.

Umahi had made the allegation after Anyim, Egwu, Odefa and all the eight PDP National Assembly members from the state issued a statement in Abuja, saying the governor was alone in his defection to All Progressives Congress (APC).

Anyim, in his reaction contained in a letter addressed to the governor and copied to President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Army Staff and other security chiefs, accused Governor Umahi of planning to assassinate him to pave way for his presidential ambition.

The former Senate president in the letter, entitled: “Governor David Umahi on His Wild, Infantile And Utterly Senseless Accusations against My Person,’’ accused Umahi of being a dictator who has been held captive by his own greed and inordinate ambition.

Anyim, who further accused the governor of engaging in diabolical rituals, also claimed his offence against the governor was that he refused to defect to APC with him.

“Governor Umahi is pitiably delusional. He is a prisoner of his greed and inordinate ambition. He is a drowning man looking for who to drag down with him. He has made his worst mistake after his latest misadventure by taking on me and other notable and respectable sons of Ebonyi who have served and continued to serve our state with resolute commitment, dedication and integrity,’’ he said.

APC acting Chairman in Ebonyi, Stanley Okoro-Emegha, in a reaction, berated Anyim for writing such a letter which he claimed were ‘riddled with lies and insults’.

In a chat with journalists in Abakaliki, Okoro-Emegha described the former Senate president’s letter as a mere pettiness which is unbecoming of an eder statesman like him.

Okoro-Emegha dismissed Anyim’s allegation that the dinners the governor had at Udensi Roundabout in Abakaliki in the build up to the 2019 general election were rituals to satisfy spiritual requirements to win his re-election, saying he was the one who suggested a dinner be held at the ever-busy junction to celebrate its beauty and splendour.

Leader of Ebonyi Concerned PDP Youths, Osita Kalu, said what Anyim said in his open letter were not new to the people.

Kalu, who recently resigned as TA to Governor Umahi on Environment, said Anyim only re-echoed what many Ebonyi people had already know about the governor and his administration.