I am Not Defecting From Labour Party With Peter Obi, Says Otti 

The governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti has assured Abians and his supporters of not having any intention to defect from the Labour Party (LP) with the party’s 2023 Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.

Recall that because of the internal crisis in the Labour Party (LP), Gov. Alex Otti’s loyalists and incumbent Executive local government Chairmen contested the election under the platform of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

There has also been rumours of the possible defection of Gov Otti to APC, APGA, Young Peoples Party (YPP) and ZLP as well ahead 2027, should efforts to resolve LP internal crisis fail.

Obi is said to have concluded arrangements with some notable politicians in the country including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and among others to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC) today, Wednesday with their teeming supporters.

Gov. Otti who was speaking during the December edition of his monthly media chat with journalists at the State Banquet Hall, Government House, Umuahia, the state capital, disclosed that the LP 2023 Presidential candidate and former governor of Anambra State, informed him (Otti) before making his decision to leave the Labour Party for his new party.

Otti, who affirmed his decision to remain in the Labour Party was to continue the struggle to rescue the party that brought him to power, said that he would only leave Labour Party if efforts to redeem the party failed.

“I joined Labour Party before Peter Obi. I didn’t join the Labour Party with him. He has communicated me that he was leaving Labour Party and I gave him my blessings, but I remain in Labour Party.

“I told him that I will have to continue the struggle to rescue Labour Party. That’s the party that brought me to power.

“If we fight and get to the end and we can’t retrieve Labour Party, then, we can now discuss options. But for now, I am not defecting with him.”

Our correspondent reports that, although a few persons have joined the Labour Party in the state, others have also joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), while many others nursing various political ambitions who are sitting on the fence, including those that are sympathetic to Gov. Otti, have decided to hold joining any political party while they watch political developments and possibly waiting for the governor to make public his next political move official.

Responding to the call by the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, urging him to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), Otti while dismissing Kalu said “I want to thank the Deputy Speaker for heeding the call that I made in my Christmas message, calling on our people who have the means to extend consideration to the less privileged, particularly at this season. So, seeing that he heeded that call and distributed rice and some money to vulnerable people, I thank him.

“But then, I have also taken the principal decision not to dignify all the comments that he made with any response. I am sure that you know a man that they called Winston Churchill, he was a two time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and lived for 90 years. He was a profound thinker and writer. There was a comment that he made. He said that you will never get to your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.

“So, we remain focused on our job, we don’t want to be distracted, that will be my response.”

Responding to question on whether he has plans to run for the second tenure, Otti said “I have also resisted the urge to begin to make predictions of what will happen in the future because I don’t have that anointing. But if God gives us life, it’s His Will that will be done, not man’s will.

“Let’s not speak when the Lord has not spoken. But we can always have our wish to say this is what we want to do, but at the end of the day, everything is in God’s hands.”

Giving a breakdown on what his administration has achieved over the last one month and also intended to do in the coming days, Gov. Otti disclosed that as part of the state government’s plans to ease off transportation stress from Abians, his administration would soon receive the delivery of more 20 electric buses, adding that another 60 of the buses were expected in the state to make up the number of the Electric Buses to 100, plying different routes in the state.

This is even as he announced that the Umuahia bus terminal would be commissioned early January with construction work to begin in Aba bus terminal few months ahead.

While attributing the recent acquisitions of some of the moribun companies by the state government, Gov reinstated the commitment of his government to address the level of unemployment among the teeming youths in the state.

He added that work would soon resume at the Abia Mega City village as part of plans by the state to end medical tourism by Nigerians and exportation of health workers to the overseas.