Abia State All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate Alex Otti spoke with reporters in Lagos on the litigation between him and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his expectations as the final battle shifts to the Supreme Court. EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.
THE Abia State governorship battle has shifted to the Supreme Court. What are your expectations?
The Supreme Court would uphold the decision of the Appeal Court because it was a well- grounded judgment that they gave. The major issues are very clear. If you go by the registered voters, there were about 1.3 million registered voters in Abia State from 17 local governments.
The PDP knew they were not going to win that election. So, all they did was to isolate three local governments that they used to perpetrate fraud – Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North. On the day of election, they removed the original sheets for ward and local government collation for the three local governments and they packed them in Government House. We have this on good authority. And all what they did was, on the day of election, they ensured that there was maximum violence in those three local governments. They would come to a polling unit, they would shoot into the air, people would run away, they would carry all the materials and take off. And what they now did was to wait for the collation to start.
At the 14th local government, I was leading by 60,000 votes and they quickly filled those original result sheets that they had taken, in collusion with some corrupt INEC officials and forced them into collation centre. So that is exactly what happened. Those results from Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North were fake results written in Government House with the active connivance of former Governor Theo Orji and all the PDP people.
They forced them into the collation centre. The Returning Officer, with all the complaints that there were no elections in those places and those results were coming, he quickly announced that he was cancelling the results of those three local governments.
Now, the PDP with all its impunity, stormed the collation centre, in a brazen manner, took the Returning Officer upstairs with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, stayed with them for about 45 minutes with policemen and all kinds of people, intimidated them and by the time they came back, they were panicking and the Returning Officer grabbed the microphone and reversed himself. That is what happened and collated all the results he had earlier cancelled, so that is what the issue is in Abia State.
What we would have expected a democrat to do would have been to choose the option to go to Supreme Court rather than calling elders out to the streets to protest, block the roads, with a lot of impunity. Some people told me they were in traffic for almost a day in Aba because people had taken over the streets. I believe that that is the only state where the elders got themselves together and pour out on the streets because courts had established the issue, why they have to go out to the street because that’s the only source of livelihood.
Finally, there is something I wanted to talk about in those local governments. People are talking today about disenfrachisement. I watched and I saw people talking about disenfranchisement and others. There are about 230,000 voters in the three local governments and that represents less than 14 per cent of the voting population in Abia State. If PDP had allowed the cancellation to stand, at the time the Supplementary Election on the 25th April, 2015, I believe that a rerun would have happened, but because they were in power, they barged into the collation centre, forced a reversal of that cancellation and got declared.
The PDP has alleged that the composition of the Court of Appeal panel favoured you. What is your reaction?
Well, I saw a petition that they wrote, that petition came barely 24hours before the panel sat and quite frankly, I don’t know what to react to. I do not know how panels are set up. So I understand that it is the President of the Court of Appeal that sets up panels, maybe when you see her, you ask her. But the reality is that the Court of Appeal is Court of Appeal, okay. If you follow a case that Governor Nyesome Wike filed that went up to the Supreme Court, I believe when that case was decided, the Supreme Court said Court of appeal is Court of Appeal irrespective of where you sit, I mean inspite of where you sit. So if they decided to sit in Abuja, Port- Harcourt or anywhere, that is the prerogative of the Court of Appeal.
My reaction is that PDP unfortunately is not in a position to determine the membership of the panel, neither was I in a position to do that. But then if you want us to talk about things we have heard, we also start talking about things we have heard, but we don’t have prove of them. But I know that the chairman of the panel does not come from Lagos, except if they just transferred her to Lagos. The last time I checked she was the presiding judge in Benue Division in Makurdi. So, I don’t know what the hell they are talking about.
Since the battle for governorship started, has there been attempts on your life?
There has been, but I don’t have fear because I am a child of God. The Bible says touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm. There have been attempts to eliminate me, those attempts failed and they will continue to fail. I am sure you must have been aware of the one that happened in Abuja. I was in the place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and on Thursday morning, God told me to move away from there, relocate, move to another town and I left. By Thursday night, over 10 gunmen stormed my residence in Abuja, killed the mobile policeman attached to me and turned the whole place upside down, but God has taken me away. He will continue to protect me. I don’t have any fear. The Bible also says if Jehovah does not watch over a city in vain is the watch by men.
Many believe that this is not the time to aspire to be a governor in this country, considering the economy and other sundry challenges. Why is your enthusiasm still high?
It is good question, but you have also answered it. This is the time for uncommon people to come into governance, people who have things to deliver. It is not going to be a tea party and I have come to face the challenges. I was reading an article recently and someone said he is supporting me because I can read a balance sheet. People who cannot read a balance sheet should not aspire to the position of leadership because this is a challenging time and it is time creative people, people who have something to offer, people who have skills who know what to do without necessarily going to Abuja cap in hand waiting for Federal allocation and bringing it back and sharing it amongst loyalists. It is a time for people like us to come in and salvage the situation.
I am aware of the enormous challenges and I did a study that took about a month with the consultant that I hired to do a study of Abia State and when the results came out, I was shockED at the level of rot and infrastructural decay, lack of direction that has been the lot of the state. Hospitals were in very terrible shape and they still remain in such shape, no roads, Aba is gone and Umuahia is a glorified village. From Umuahia to Ukwa, nothing to show for it and people are insisting that they want to rule and by the time they finish, they bring their house boys and drivers to succeed them so that they can still be in charge. But this is the time for people who have something to come in.
If you have read something about me, you will know that I thrive in such circumstances. I am blessed to create something from nothing. I do know how bad it is where oil prices are today, how Federal revenues have gone down, but I do also know that my people are very creative people. All they need from government is the enabling environment for them to do their businesses and they will pay once you are able to give them good roads, water and electricity. You provide security for them, good hospitals and ensure the quality of education is in top shape. Then the place will do well, but it requires well trained and well skilled people to do that.
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