Aham Uko was the Commissioner of Environment during the first tenure of Ex- Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration. As one who has served in the bank as an Assistant general Manager (AGM) ,albeit infamously, Uko operated with so much gait that many people had falsely rated his capacity to deliver.But time would later reveal that he was an impenitent Chameleon .As the commissioner of Finance in 2019 Uko left in history as the most inept commissioner of Finance Abia state has ever had.
Some evidences abound to validate Uko’s inglorious career in the bank and his unfaithfulness during his stint in NDDC while Chief Onyema Ugochukwu held sway.
Many believe that, but for his cerebral sense of ingratitude, Aham Uko should be eternally grateful to Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and the family of TA Orji that facilitated his appointment as Commissioner for finance during the second tenure even at the expense of more qualified Abians
Also consumed in his prohibitive rating of himself, Uko would always deride and often malign the competence of his colleagues just to showcase himself as the most competent person who has the midas touch to solving knotty financial issues. No doubt he succeeded and was once appointed into a committee to supervise the installation of solar powered street lights in Umuahia and Aba.
Members of the committee, who were drawn across Abia state included late Ogunji,Dr Osita Igbe, Sir Tony Ezebuiro and others, were provided with N200m but to their disappointment , Aham sidelined the committee members and pocketed about N100m meant for the Umuahia project without doing the needful.That would have been a warning but Aham found his way back to the government through high powered intercession of many Ohuhu sons.
His time as the commissioner exposed the state to unprecedented borrowing from commercial banks which shot up the debt portfolio of the state. Incidentally instead of utilising the loans for meaningful ventures Uko would pay his cronies that were ready to play ball and at least part with the usual 60/40 sharing formula which was prevalent during his time.
In his usual self Governor Ikpeazu, when he realised the unpatriotism of Uko decided to sideline him and literally rendered him redundant, especially, when it became obvious that he was extorting money and kickbacks from some parastatals via their monthly subventions.
There were verifiable proofs that some schools were coaxed to remit certain stipulated amounts into designated accounts in UBA and Unity bank .Two Commissioners ( Prof Mgboji and Uche Ihediwa SAN)who were commissioned to investigate the alleged fraudulent practices are still alive to testify to the truth of the matter. Bursars of these Abia Poly, Absu, School of Health who were invited to the committee also showed evidence of their deposit tellers which were handed over to the ex- Governor. Thank God that then Chief of staff Agbazuere is still alive as the matter at some point was transferred to him after the investigative committee listened to him. It’s therefore amazing that an Aham Uko with such dirty service records will come out to the public to smear the image of the past administration and talk about good governance.
Who would believe that our latter day saint whose only motivation is to secure an office in the present Alex Otti’s government would embark on this infantile adventure of self destruction after massively extorted from the contractors even with the intimidation to withdraw their payment instructions from the bank if they renege on agreement. The Governor also heard about that and directed that payments be made through the Ministry of Works instead of Finance as was the case till the end of the administration.
Saint Uko who preached good governance incredibly used N48m to re-validate data of pensioners of about 6,000 in the state. An exercise that his predecessor handled with only N2m. He increased the cost of going to Abuja for FAAC meeting from N500k to N1.6m.monthly This was in addition to the N5m naira overhead that he introduced immediately his predecessor left office totaling N240m for four years. May be for the overhead that he enjoyed he could not resign from his office even when it was obvious that he had no job doing in the Ministry because of his premeditated redundancy .
Uko’s sins were just too many.That ex- Governor Ikpeazu didn’t sack him lives much to be questioned. Aham Uko colluded with officials of one agency to embezzle funds from one of the development partners which ran into millions of dollars. I wish that Dr Alex Otto’s searchlight will beam light towards those areas.
Ask Aham Uko to mention any institutional reform that he engendered as a professional?Or what policy thrust he champoined during his time as the commissioner of Finance? Instead, under his watch the salary management software was compromised and all the gains previously achieved were lost because of his inefficiency.
It’s apparent that Uko has blackmail adrenaline running in his blood otherwise he would not have first betrayed the Ochendo family that he countlessly prostrated to, and now Ex- Governor Ikpeazu.
That he was humiliated out of office before he forced himself out was due to some notable persons especially from his Ohuhu clan that interceded on his behalf otherwise he was mandated to resign few weeks to the general elections.
It was laughable to hear him claim that he wanted to resign before the elections . What a despicable ingrate that he is . we wish him well in his peurile lobby to find favour from the new Government.
The New Abia Group
