FACT-CHECK: ERIC OPAH’S “COMPASSION” CLAIM IS A CAMPAIGN PROMISE BUILT ON A FALSE PREMISE
Pen Caleb’s post is neither a fact-check nor an honest account of what happened. It is a carefully packaged political advertisement designed to manufacture outrage against Governor Alex Otti while presenting Eric Opah’s untested promises as proven achievements.
Let us end the deception with facts.
CLAIM 1: “The Abia State Government suddenly displaced roadside traders.”
VERDICT: FALSE AND MISLEADING.
The enforcement against street trading did not begin secretly or without warning. The Abia State Government had publicly sensitised residents and announced enforcement against trading on roads, drainage channels and other unauthorised public spaces.
A policy that was publicly announced and repeatedly enforced cannot honestly be described as a sudden ambush.
CLAIM 2: “Traders were removed because the government lacks compassion.”
VERDICT: EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL, NOT EVIDENCE.
Roads, pavements, drainage channels, junctions, bus stops and traffic lanes are public infrastructure. They are not private market stalls.
Allowing unrestricted trading on active roads may appear compassionate until:
- a vehicle loses control and kills traders;
- blocked drains cause flooding;
- pedestrians are forced into moving traffic;
- ambulances and emergency vehicles cannot pass;
- refuse creates health and fire hazards; or
- traffic congestion destroys productive hours.
A responsible government must protect livelihoods, but it must also protect lives, mobility, sanitation and public infrastructure.
Compassion does not mean abandoning law and public safety.
CLAIM 3: “The government provided no viable alternatives.”
VERDICT: UNSUBSTANTIATED.
The post does not identify:
- the exact locations involved;
- the names or number of affected traders;
- the notices previously issued;
- the designated markets available nearby;
- the goods allegedly destroyed;
- the officers responsible; or
- any official response from the Task Force.
It simply announces a sweeping conclusion and expects emotion to replace evidence.
Meanwhile, the Otti administration has been rebuilding and reorganising markets, including phased redevelopment and temporary relocation arrangements in major commercial centres.
That does not mean enforcement officers can never make mistakes. Any officer who unlawfully destroys goods or abuses citizens should be identified, investigated and sanctioned.
But isolated videos do not prove that the government’s policy is to destroy traders without alternatives.
CLAIM 4: “Eric Opah would never displace traders without providing alternatives.”
VERDICT: IMPOSSIBLE TO VERIFY.
Eric Opah is not currently governing Abia State.
He has not managed Aba’s traffic congestion, drainage crisis, sanitation problems, market redevelopment, road setbacks or street-trading challenges as governor.
Nobody can therefore present what he “would do” as superior evidence against what a serving government is actually doing.
Promises are easy when the speaker carries no responsibility for enforcement, funding, urban planning or public safety.
Where are Eric Opah’s:
- market designs?
- identified lands?
- funding plans?
- construction timelines?
- shop allocation criteria?
- rental or purchase prices?
- traffic-management plans?
- sanitation and security arrangements?
The advert answers none of these questions.
It merely says he “believes” in compassion.
Abia cannot be governed by campaign poetry.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD IS OBVIOUS
The same political actors who previously condemned Aba and Umuahia as dirty, chaotic and ungoverned are now attacking the government for restoring order.
They demanded free roads but oppose the removal of road obstructions.
They demanded functioning drainage but defend trading on drainage channels.
They demanded modern cities but resist every difficult step required to build them.
They demanded leadership but now describe lawful enforcement as wickedness.
That is not policy.
It is political opportunism.
THE OTTI STANDARD IS DEVELOPMENT WITH ORDER
Governor Alex Otti is rebuilding roads, clearing drainage channels, modernising markets, restoring public spaces and confronting decades of urban disorder.
No serious administration can reconstruct roads with public funds and then surrender those same roads to uncontrolled street trading, illegal motor parks and permanent obstruction.
Roads must remain roads.
Drainage channels must remain drainage channels.
Bus stops must remain bus stops.
Markets must remain the proper centres of commerce.
Where enforcement officers exceed their lawful authority, citizens should provide names, dates, locations, videos and inventories so that the matter can be investigated.
But political propagandists must stop presenting every lawful removal from a public road as an attack on the poor.
FINAL VERDICT
Pen Caleb’s post is MISLEADING.
It relies on:
- unsupported allegations;
- selective videos;
- omission of prior warnings;
- silence about public safety;
- silence about drainage obstruction;
- silence about designated markets;
- silence about market redevelopment; and
- an unverifiable promise about what Eric Opah supposedly “would” do.
Eric Opah’s campaign cannot build credibility by pretending that lawlessness is compassion and urban order is oppression.
Governor Otti is not fighting enterprise.
He is restoring order, protecting lives and rebuilding Abia into a state where business can thrive sustainably.
The discussion is over: roads are not markets, emotions are not evidence, and campaign promises are not performance.
