OSUSU ROAD FLOODING: WHEN A VIDEO IS USED TO TELL THE WRONG STORY
A video circulating online reportedly shows a flooded section of Osusu Road in Aba after rainfall on June 27, 2026. The pictures may show genuine surface flooding, but the political story attached to them is misleading, historically inaccurate and deliberately framed to deceive the public.
Let us put the facts straight.
Osusu Road is not one of the roads newly reconstructed by Governor Alex Otti, OFR.
The road was reconstructed under the administration of former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and officially commissioned in January 2021. Contemporary reports recorded it as a 2.3-kilometre road constructed with rigid cement-pavement technology. Governor Otti did not claim ownership of that reconstruction.
What the present administration has reportedly undertaken on Osusu Road is maintenance. Maintenance of an inherited road is not the same as reconstructing it, and it is dishonest to place the original engineering design, elevation and drainage limitations of that road at the feet of an administration that did not build it.
The viral post therefore mixes three separate issues in order to manufacture one false conclusion.
First, a road can be structurally motorable and still experience temporary flooding where drainage channels are blocked, undersized, poorly connected or overwhelmed by intense rainfall. Floodwater on a road does not automatically prove that the asphalt or pavement has collapsed.
Second, a short video cannot establish the duration of the rainfall, the precise cause of the flooding, the condition of the drains, or how quickly the water receded. The claim that the scene followed “less than 30 minutes of rain” remains the assertion of the person who posted it unless independently supported by time-stamped, continuous footage and verifiable weather information.
Third, blaming Governor Otti for allegedly reconstructing Osusu Road is plainly false. The historical record identifies the administration that reconstructed and commissioned it. Facts do not change because a misleading caption is written in capital letters.
This does not mean that the flooding should be ignored. The relevant state and local authorities should inspect the drains, remove obstructions, identify illegal structures restricting water channels and determine whether the inherited drainage system requires redesign or expansion. Good governance demands prompt intervention wherever citizens face hardship.
But accountability must rest on truth.
Governor Otti’s administration should be judged on the roads it actually constructed or reconstructed, the maintenance it performed, and how effectively it responds to inherited infrastructure defects. It should not be blamed through a fabricated history that transfers a 2021 project to an administration inaugurated in 2023.
The truthful statement is therefore simple:
Osusu Road was reconstructed and commissioned by the previous Abia State administration. Governor Alex Otti’s government inherited it and has been associated with maintenance work on the road. The circulating flood video may justify an urgent drainage inspection, but it does not prove that an Otti-reconstructed road failed—because Osusu Road was not reconstructed by Otti.
Criticism is legitimate. Deliberate misrepresentation is not.
A flooded road deserves technical attention, not political forgery. Those who genuinely care about Aba should demand drainage solutions without falsifying project ownership, dates or public records.
Speak the truth. Correct the drainage. Stop the propaganda.
