Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The Abia State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Alex Otti, has finally dumped his former party for the All Progressives Congress (APC). The former Managing Director of defunct Diamond Bank Plc said he joined APC with over 400, 000 of his followers.
Among those who moved over to APC with Otti were his running mate, Dr. (Mrs) Uche Eme Uche, Chief David Ogbo Onuoha (Bourdex), Chief Chris Nkwonta (both of whom ran for Abia North and South senatorial district elections in 2019), Navy Commander Mac Donald Uba (retd), former House of Assembly members and many others.
Speaking during his official declaration for APC at his Ehi na Uguru Ward 5 in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government, Otti said he and his followers did not leave APGA because they could not achieve their political desire, but to stand on a better platform “for the good of Abia.”
“It is pertinent to put on record the fact that through the hard work of our supporters, we were able to make APGA a very formidable party in the state that won 11 out of the 24 House of Assembly seats and a Federal House of Representative seat after the 2015 election.
“It is on record also that we overwhelmingly won the governorship mandate of the state before PDP invaded the collation centre and brazenly stole the mandate, but we have put the whole incident and many ugly ones behind us.”
Otti who met with Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu a week before his declaration said prior to the 2019 election, his supporters and some leaders of APC had urged him to join APC, but that he did not find such move expedient before now.