Abia State governor Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu was reportedly hurried off the stage at Abia State Poly in Aba after the audience he was asked to address handed him a humiliating rejection.

Ikpeazu was attending “Wonder in the City Crusade”.

The crusade held from November 1-4, 2018. Ikpeazu graced the occasion on Sunday, the last day of the event. But the grace turned grass after the governor was invited on stage to address the audience.

“Bishop Goddy Okafor (of Peculiar Peoples’ Ministries Int’l Inc aka Glorious Life Gospel Center) handed the microphone over to Governor Ikpeazu,” a witness told The Realm News.

“The governor started with ‘Aba praise the Lord’ but the crowd of worshippers unanimously responded ‘anyi achoghi gi!’ (we don’t want you!)

“As Governor Ikpeazu opened his mouth again, sachets of water, shoes, and all manner of objects landed on the governor.

“The governor’s aides quickly removed him from the stage. I think this is a big sign that Abians have rejected the failed government Ikeapzu in Abia State.

“People were just angry with the governor and started throwing water sachets, shoes and other things at him.

“I felt embarrassed for him,” the witness said.

The growing public anger against Governor Ikpeazu could not be unconnected to series of factual revelations from The Realm News about goings-on the Abia State Government would rather sweep under the carpet.

The revelations began with the exclusive publication of details of capital development funds The Realm News obtained months ago. The documents, which was analyzed by financial experts including those from transparency firm BudgIT, revealed Governor Ikpeazu’s government has not only mortgaged the future of Abia State but is also lying to the Debt Management Office (DMO) about how deep it has plunged the state into debts.

Prior to our fact-based reporting on Abia State Government, Ikpeazu’s administration (like the ones before it) never made its budget public. But the government hurriedly published its 2018 budget after we began publishing our factual investigations into its shady dealings. It, however, failed to publish it 2015-2017 budgets on which most of our reporting were based.

Credible sources also told The Realm News Investigation that Ikpeazu’s administration coerces local council bosses into receiving way less than their allotted federal allocations and signing documents lying that they collected the actual amount.

Abia State had also been littered with trash raising fears of cholera outbreak as flooding gripped several parts of Nigeria. But the government did nothing about it until The Realm News published embarrassing photos of refuse heaps which had overtaken the state.

To make things worse for itself, Ikpeazu’s salary-and-pensions-owing Abia – rated one of the worst places to be a pensioner in Nigeria – bought jeeps for council bosses while retirees were being owed for 18 months. Sources told us the government made the move to silence the council bosses regarding the massive fraud taking place in the government and buy their loyalty ahead 2019 governorship election.

Our correspondents have approached the state government on multiple occasions to respond to the allegations of corruption, mismanagement, fraud and embezzlement against it. But officials repeatedly told us they had been ordered not to speak to The Realm News.

Governor Ikpeazu’s government has never issued any fact-based (or even false) statement to debunk any of our story. But we now have it on good authority that, instead of responding with facts and civility and telling its side of the story to the Abia public, the government is conspiring with the police to illegally arrest The Realm News publisher Don Norman Obinna.

Their plan, we gathered, is to keep Obinna detained till Ikpeazu – who is backed by a serving senator caught sharing cash to officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – wins next year’s governorship election.