By Anayo Okoli, Umuahia.

ABIA State government has reacted to the position taken by one of the founding fathers of the state and an elder statesman, Prince Benjamin Apugo, who condemned in strong terms the ongoing disengagement of non-indigenes by the government, dismissing the elder statesman as “suffering from fundamental ignorance”.

The government said that Apugo is “anti-Abia” and not qualified to speak on issues affecting the state.

Apugo had condemned the sack-non-indigenes policy of the government, saying it was “unpopular, ill-advised and divisive”, and capable of bringing bad blood between Abia and the rest of the country.

However, 24 hours after he spoke, the government took him up on the issue and lashed at him, saying that he is so detached from the people to speak for them.

According to the commissioner for information and strategy, Chief Don Ubani, Apugo was “not well informed; if he was well informed he would not spoken the way he did”.

“Apugo is suffering from fundamental ignorance. He has been anti-Abia and anti-Igbo. He was not properly groomed. He can’t say that the decision is unpopular. He is detached from the people. He spoke like that because he is well alienated from the people. That is the position of the government”.