*Says his predecessor left Abia in tatters
*Declares no plan to probe Ikpeazu, but ex-governor has to refund N10bn he got for airport project
*Insists he hasn’t borrowed since assumption of office, reduced state’s debt to N66bn
Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia and Sunday Ehigiator in Lagos
Abia State Governor, Mr. Alex Otti has foreclosed the possibility of defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the situation of things in the Labour Party (LP) doesn’t warrant such a move.
However, after an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja yesterday, the LP faction loyal to Julius Abure, announced the setting up of a disciplinary committee to try Otti and some others for anti-party activities.
Speculations have been swirling around Otti’s possible change of political party given the leadership crisis in his LP and also the fact that it has now become fashionable for opposition State governors to decamp.
But the Abia Governor, who was speaking on Arise TV breakfast programme, ‘The Morning Show,’ insisted that he has no compelling reason to now dump the party under which he came to power in 2023.
“Governor Otti is not decamping. And my party is not on a shaky ground. Everybody must not be in APC. This is democracy,” he said.
The Abia Governor noted that remaining in opposition based on one’s conviction has its own merits and could yield bold political dividends in future.
To buttress his point, he cited President Bola Tinubu, who consistently played opposition politics in the Alliance for Democracy, Action Congress of Nigeria and finally the APC that eventually brought him to the presidency.
However, he acknowledged that nothing was static in politics,, having changed party platform a number of times as he had moved from the PDP to APGA, APC and then LP under which he became Abia Governor.
While saying that the condition today does not necessitate dumping LP “by blackmail”, Otti pointed out that “things can change tomorrow (and) he would be “whenever God wants me to be.”
He reiterated that he has no problems with Julius Abure, the former LP National Chairman having, “worked very well with him and he’s still my friend.”
According to him, the misunderstanding he had with Abure was that he told him “the truth”, which was that his tenure had elapsed and he no longer had the legitimacy to remain as LP National Chairman.
“Today, we have fought and retrieved Labour Party,” Otti enthused, adding that the party that brought him to power remains strong with a functional National Working Committee.
Otti refused to be drawn to disclose how he has been funding his projects without borrowing, as he continues to claim, and how much the Abia Airport project would cost.
Despite the alleged pillage of the state resources by his predecessor, including N10 billion spent on phanthom airport, Otti said that he would not probe Ikpeazu as it would be a waste of my time” and also make his government to lose focus.
On how he emerged Governor of Abia State after several failed attempts, he credited it to God and the uprightness of Prof. Nnenna Oti, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri whom he insisted he had never met before the election.
According to him, “A lot of times we don’t celebrate people, and I’ve had time to say good things about her.
“I didn’t know her from Adam, never met her. And when she was selected, that was just like 48, 72 hours before the election. So I was a bit scared, because when she was appointed Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, I tried to reach out to her because she bears the same surname.
“She’s Oti, Prof. Nnennaya Oti. And I guess that was 2021. So I got her number, tried to call her. She didn’t respond. I sent a text message congratulating her. She also didn’t respond. So I just said, okay. I left her. And two years later, she was now going to be the returning officer.
“But then, most importantly, I left everything in the hands of God. And then the election came. If you recall, I’ve been in this process since 2015. And a particular local government was always used to falsify the results of the election. And that’s Obingwa. Again, in 2019, it happened.
“So 2023, the election, it was clear that I was going to win the election again. And the results kept trickling in from the different local governments. The tally was increasing.
“The difference was increasing. And what they did at that time was just to wait. So at some point, when they thought enough local governments had come in, and they falsified the results, moved it to 80,000, from there to 90,000, it ended at 108,000.
“But then this woman rejected those falsified results and said she was going to stick to the results that came from the polling units. And the rest is now history. So we cannot tell the story of the changes that have happened in Abia State, the new Abia, as we call it, without a reference to Professor Nnennaya Oti.
“We thank God for her. So I strongly believe that the hand of God was in the whole process. It was God who brought her. So my tribute to her, thank you, and tribute to her courage.”
He said he was “not sure yet” how much his government would spend on the joint project with the federal government and equally “not sure yet” the amount FG would commit to the airport project.
Otti challenged the opposition “to come with the facts” if they think he has borrowed money from anywhere to fund projects since the inception of his administration.
He said his predecessor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu “left absolutely nothing” in the state coffers but instead left a debt burden of N192 billion, including unpaid salaries and pensions. Otti said he has reduced the huge debt profile to N66 billion by end of 2024.
On why he was not staying in the government house, he said, “So what happened was that my predecessor commissioned an uncompleted building on the 28th of May. I would also like you to see it. My people will take you to it.
“And it is supposed to be a new government house. So what did he do? He completed the ground floor, finished it very well, and put in Italian furniture. I don’t like to talk about it, but since you asked. He put Italian furniture in the place, painted it, and commissioned it. Okay. So after the inauguration, I went there.
“When I looked at the ground floor, I was very happy. But as I went to the first and second floors, they were not even plastered. No cemetery fittings, nothing.
“Of course, we tried to bring in KPMG at some point, and I’m sure you must have seen that, where they looked at one of the accounts, and they found that some N10 billion was drawn for a non-existent airport.
“So that’s the only one that we are saying, bring back our money or give us the airport. It’s an audio airport. We’ve just flagged off the construction of the Abia airport. Probing is a waste of my time.”
On debts he inherited from his predecessor, he said, “I just saw the numbers from DMO. In 2023, they said we inherited a debt profile of N138 billion. But at the end of last year, we reduced it to N66 billion. We’ve not borrowed one dime.
“Let me tell you. But the opposition keeps saying, you know, you are borrowing. Who did I borrow from? Did I borrow from them? If I borrowed from a bank, it would be clear. DMO would tell you.”
“By the time we looked at the books and the numbers, we found that it was 192 billion that my predecessor handed over to me as debt. If you have money in the coffers, you wouldn’t owe. So we had netted off.
“No, if you net off what is left in the coffers, we had a debt profile of 192 billion. So he left nothing, absolutely nothing in the coffers. Because when you say, how much did he leave? You owe money, and you are leaving money. Does it make sense? It doesn’t. So what you do is you take the total assets and remove your liabilities.
“And you know what the net is. And I’m saying the net he left for us was N192 billion. So it was more than what the DMO quoted, because the DMO didn’t include pension areas, which we have cleared off.
“They didn’t include salary areas, which we also paid. We didn’t include all the parastatals that were being owed, including Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic and the medical personnel. So those we have taken care of. And today, I can tell you the state is running very, very well.
“First of all, pension areas, some of them were talking of numbers of 45 to 56 months. People were not paid. So we sat down with the pensioners. And we said, OK, you are being owed this much. We need to take them out. So the leadership of pensioners sat down with us for a very long period.
“And we agreed. And by Easter last year, we paid a total of about $10 billion to pensioners to clear all the areas. So it was like, you are going to pay in full and final settlement.
“Somebody’s been owing you for 56 months. No chance that you may get it. But I said, I didn’t need it. I need this money. So if you were here, or if you watched, you found that the pensioners organised a Thanksgiving service. A lot of them were very happy.”
On the justification for not staying at the government house yet, he said, “The first thing is prudence, one of the easiest things for me to do would have been to start building a new government house.
“It’s not like it’s very comfortable. But I know that if I use the money to put into dealing with maybe the road in Umuahia, I will empower a whole lot of people who ordinarily didn’t have access. So you have prudence.
“Then you have Economies of scale. What is most important? You need to sit down. As a student of economics, I have my priorities listed.
“And I know that if the man in Ariaria market cannot get to the market, he cannot add to my GDP, so he cannot add to my internally generated revenue. I know that if the woman in Bende cannot access her family, then she’s not going to be useful, not to her family or the government. I know that if I am sick and I cannot get attention from the primary health care centre, then I will be useless to the economy.
“And that’s why when we came, we looked at the 948 primary health care centres in Abia, all of them were in a mess. And we said, OK, we’ll put some $89 billion in the budget for renovating 200 primary health centres in 100 days. That is happening now. By next month, it will be 100 days. And 200 primary health centres will be delivered. We’ll take another 200 after this one, until we get the 948. We looked at the schools. We found that a lot of our children no longer want to go to school.
“You see them early in the morning hawking bananas and groundnuts, and all that. So I was embarrassed, because I grew up here. And my parents were not rich. But I went to school. And I knew that if these children did not go to school, then they wouldn’t have the opportunity that I had. And I said, okay.
“I wasn’t even too sure what the problem was, whether it was the school fees, or just that they wanted to make money. So I set up a task force. I said, first of all, let’s know how much we make from school fees.
“Today, Abia is running well. The State is in very good hands and it’s moving in the right direction,” the Abia Governor said.
After Emergency NEC Meeting, Abure’s Faction Sets Up Committee to Investigate Otti, Others for Anti-party Activities
After an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja yesterday, the LP faction loyal to Julius Abure announced the setting up of a disciplinary committee to try Alex Otti and others for anti-party activities.
Also, the Abure’s faction announced that it was not part of any coalition talks with anyone or any political party. These were the main points of the emergency NEC meeting.
Reading the communique of the meeting signed by Abure and Farouk Umar, Abure said, ”NEC reviewed the anti-party activities of Dr. Alex Otti, the Abia State Governor and other erring members and consequently sets up a disciplinary committee as follows: Dr. Ayo Olorunfemi- Chairman; Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim- Secretary, Kehinde Edun, Mrs. Dudu Manuga and Callistus Ihejiagwa as members.”
Abure said that the committee was given two weeks to submit its report.
He explained that most of those in the coalition cannot afford to maintain unity in their different political party, wondering how they could maintain unity in their so-called coalition.
The communique added: ”NEC confirmed its ratification of the list of Ad-hoc delegates, elected from the Congresses in the 36 states and the FCT, to the 2024 National Convention, which ratification was granted at the NEC meeting held in Asaba on 20/03/2024.
”NEC confirmed that the 2024 National Convention was held in accordance with the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, the 2019 LP Constitution, INEC Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, 2022 and the LP Guidelines for the 2024 National Convention.
”NEC confirmed the validity of the 2024 National Convention and stands by its outcome.
”NEC reiterates its support and confidence in the NWC elected at the 2024 National Convention and its belief in the competence and capacity of the NWC elected at the 2024 National Convention, led by Barrister Julius Abure as National Chairman, to continue to steer the Party towards unity, progress and victory in the coming elections.
”NEC commends Nigeria’s Apex Court for standing on the sound principle of the supremacy of political parties, and the sanctity and bindingness of decisions taken by the validly convened recognized organs as created by the Party’s Constitution, in its decision delivered on 04/04/2025.
”NEC expressed its commitment to continue to seek peace and reconciliation within the ranks of the Party and again extends an olive branch to all aggrieved members of the party to sheath their swords in the overall interest of the Party and our dear Nation.
“NEC congratulates Chief George Muoghalu, who emerged winner and the Party’s candidate for the 2025 Anambra State Governorship Election at the Governorship primaries held in Awka on 05/04/2025.
”NEC rallies all members and Ndi Anambra to support Chief George Muoghalu for the 08/11/25 Anambra State Governorship election for a greater Anambra State,” the communique read.
Also speaking, Abure berated Otti for using uncouth language on members of NWC of the party.
