Abia group hails Otti, to raise N50m for guber form

Abia Freedom Alliance (AFA), an association of concerned technocrats, professionals, businessmen and religious leaders from Abia State, has offered to purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms for a governorship aspirant, Alex Otti.

Otti, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), on Easter Sunday, declared his intention to vie for the governorship seat of Abia State, in the 2023 election.

AFA said its members will raise the N50 million as approved by the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) to buy the form for Otti, who is making a third time bid for the top public service job in Abia State.

In a statement by the Convener of the group, Uzor Nwachukwu, AFA said it considered Otti’s aspiration to lead Abia genuine, well-meaning and altruistic, adding that these were the virtues that informed the association’s gesture.

It congratulated Otti for his courage and tenacity to, once again, throw his hat into the ring for the governorship seat of Abia State, despite ‘being rigged out’ by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, in the last two elections (2015 and 2019).

“We congratulate the indefatigable and irrepressible Otti for his tenacity and purposeful commitment towards the liberation of Abia people.

“For over 20 years, Abia has remained in the vice grip of fiendish and heartless group of people who arrested and imprisoned the development of the state, and castrated the hopes and lives of our people, through the rudderless and reprehensible rulership, riding on the anti-people PDP train,” AFA said in the statement.

The group praised Otti, a former group managing director/chief executive officer of the erstwhile Diamond Bank Plc, now Access Bank, for being the most important opposition voice in Abia politics and not relenting in his effort at holding the state government to account.

AFA said: “We believe Otti, when he said during his declaration of interest for the governorship of Abia that he will free the state from their slave masters. We also believe him when he said he will fast track the development of the state in all sectors of its economy, pay off years of arrears of salaries, pensions, gratuities, and rededicate the state back to God, as God’s Own State.”