ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti, has warned those trying to twist his statement about Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party, (LP).
Otti had claimed that he once won a gubernatorial election without Obi, the former Anambra State Governor.
Voiceofnaija.ng had quoted him as saying: “In 2015 when I ran under APGA, there was no Peter Obi. And we have it on our record that I won that election. At the time we were joining the Labour Party, Peter Obi had not joined.
“It took about a week before he called me and said that he purchased the presidential nomination form and he was coming to the Labour Party.”
“Peter Obi is a great addition to our campaign, but I can tell you that we won an election before in Abia without him,” he added.
The Governor-elect, however, said, those trying to twist his statement about having won an election in the past when he and his friend Obi, were not in the same party, do not know the extent of their relationship and virility of their bond, which he described as unbreakable and evergreen.
Reacting to a trending report, Otti described the report as “headline-induced journalistic sensationalism”, geared towards driving social media traffic and drawing needless controversy that would keep the promoters busy.
The former bank chief in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, on Saturday, noted that the LP presidential candidate will be laughing at those behind the story.
He said: “Obi knows and understands my personality, and knows that I hold him very high, and thus would be laughing at those that twisted my statement in a manner it would look like a denigration of him.
“That I almost lost the APGA governorship ticket in 2019 in Abia, was because I had the audacity to defend Obi publicly when I presented facts of evidence to prove that he left the money he claimed to have left behind in Anambra’s treasury while leaving office as governor. This was against the denial by the then-Anambra State government.
“Again, my Thisday Column of June 8, 2020 captioned, ‘The Triumph of Profligacy Over Prudence’ was used to celebrate Obi and his leadership style.
“As we were not in the same party then, there was no better way to prove that my love, support and appreciation of Okwute has nothing to do with politics. I’m sure he would be laughing over this report, because he’s smarter and thus understands the agenda of those circulating the distorted portion of my interview.
“Obi and I have unbreakable bond, therefore those trying to use a news headline to bury the substance of my analogical submission which was made to respond to a question and explain that, outside the massive impacts of the Obi wave, we are on ground in Abia and had won elections twice in the past; are either being misled or are outrightly mischievous.”
The LP Governor-elect had while responding to a question on whether it was the Obi wave that made him win the election had responded that he won in 2015 and 2019, which were stolen.
In 2015, his party also won close to 50 per cent of the House of Assembly seats, an assembly that PDP had always won all the seats since 1999.