Abia Guber Election: Dr Alex Otti Retrieves His Mandate At Last – Jude Ejike Duruoma

I am driven or compelled, by an insurmountable, pressure, within me, as one who was, not only there, but participated from the beginning of the fight to rescue Abia, to respond to certain ear bitting, nauseating and disgusting rubbish, being dished out by the unnecessary opposition and enemies of “ndi Abia”.

One wonders why the issues or claims over who did what or didn’t, to achieve victory in the last governorship election in Abia, clearly won, once again, by Dr Alex Otti is necessary. I believe that what’s important to the people of Abia, who had suffered enough and resolved that their votes must count this time, is that the mandate they gave to Dr Alex Otti, which was stolen 8 years ago, has finally been retrieved from the criminals who stole it.

I know that some cynics may ask why only now, but in answering that question, let me make one fact very clear, that it followed an altercation l had with an old friend some hours ago. I was so upset by his line of argument, based on some stup!d and unverified allegations or hear say, that l chose to clear a few issue over the said governorship election.

A little background: Dr Alex Otti came into Abia politics about 2014. His political party of choice then was the PDP, but it didn’t take him long to realize that, if he had to achieve his dream of rescuing Abia from the strangle or chocking hold of the evil men that held her hostage, he was in the wrong party. He couldn’t stand the initial shock of the endorsement method, which was like the officially adopted practice by the party hierarchy, at their governorship primary. He immediately left PDP for APGA.

In APGA, he clinched the gubernatorial ticket, ran an unconventional campaign by singing the songs Abians wanted to hear and they joined him in both singing and dancing his tunes. Every Abian who wanted a change in the style of political leadership in the state, even from the ruling, PDP, soon believed and joined Dr Alex Otti in his campaign to rescue Abia. It soon became a movement which he led perfectly well, with notable groups and opinion leaders in the state, adopting and endorsing him.

He overwhelmingly won that very first governorship election he contested in 2015. He did so by winning 14 of the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia State at the first ballot.

At the second ballot, which became necessary after Sen TA Orji and his PDP cohorts, invaded the state INEC Collation Centre in Umuahia, where they forced the over 70 year old Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the corrupt Returning Officer, a Prof and then VC of UNN, to accept to revalidate the 3 LGAs, where elections had been cancelled due to unprecedented violence and massive rigging. A situation that had a particular Local Government council, submitting figures that were more than 4 times the number of registered voters, not even accredited voters, just to overwhelm the number of votes already casted in 14 LGAs and it was accepted.

Both local and international observer groups, who were lucky to escape with their lives, raised loud alarm, which reverberated across Abia. Who would have believed that votes from just one LGA, Obingwa, was enough to overturn or cancel out votes from 14 LGAs already won by Dr Alex Otti? But that happened in Abia.

PDP was in power at the federal level then and every fictitious figure submitted from states the party held power, was accepted without questions. The party abused power at every level, but found Dr Otti, with so much courage, dogged and too hot a fighter to be ignored. He gave them sleepless nights and a run for their money, but they were very determined to ensure he was stopped, at all costs.

Finally, Abians, including this writer, wept profusely at Abuja, on that very faithful day that the same “Supreme Court”, overturned the earlier verdict of the Court of Appeal Owerri, which had ruled in favour of Dr Otti, as the true winner of the 2015 governorship election in Abia..

In 2019, the decision on how to allocate the votes, to to different political parties, was taken, months before the actual voting took place. This was mainly due to the fact that they feared Dr Otti, who was on the ballot once again, was going to win any free and fair election in Abia State, though there was governorship election in Abia that year, but the earlier allocated votes or figures, were filled into result sheets and submitted to INEC to declare the wrong candidate as winner.

Bags of Abia money were rolled into Abuja for the “Apex court” to once again, shamelessly affirm the wrong candidate as the winner. No amount of money was infact considered too much to pay, from government coffers, to ensure votes were not counted in Abia, but that a winner from PDP emerged.

The same Abia people who endured, stood with Dr Otti thick and thin and patiently waited for the last opportunity in 2023 to do it all over again. Dr Alex Otti, who never gave up or disappointed Abians, put up another spirited fight, without sharing money to anyone or groups, but finally retrieved that stollen mandate. This time, votes from Obingwa delayed the prompt declaration, but Abians patiently waited and Prof Nnenna Otti insisted on no compromise, until common sense and the people’s will/votes prevailed.

We are sick and tired of those in opposition, idle heads, cynics, subjective critics and enemies of Abians, claiming or alleging that a certain personality, from outside the state, intervened or influenced whatever, to ensure that Dr Alex Otti was declared the winner of an election Abians came out and massively voted for him, just like they did in previous elections or since he started.

It’s stupidly annoying, nonsensical, abuse of freedom of speech and an insult on the mentality of the majority of Abians, for anyone to try to take the victory away from them or give credit to a non existent, imaginary personality, for that matter. Where has the person been over the years, is the right question people of goodwill are asking.

Yes, there was the OBIDIENTS factor, which swept across the southeast region and Nigeria as a whole, for Mr Peter Obi during the Presidential election. Obidients are not members of the Labour Party, but supporters of Peter Obi. Their impact was felt most in the presidential election, which Obi won across the country and with over 90% of votes cast in the entire States of the southeast. We are all Obidients, with Dr Otti himself leading.

The Obidients were mostly in indeferent in the last governorship and House of Assembly elections, especially given the outcome of the presidential election, rigged by INEC.

By the way, 2 other states in the southeast, Enugu and Ebonyi precisely, were due for governorship elections and LP fielded candidates in these States. The outcomes so far, may be said to justify the claim here, that Abians were entirely in a league of their own, given the peculiar situation in the state and their past experiences.

Congratulations to;
Dr Alex Chioma Otti,
The Governor–Elect of Abia state.

The Voters of Abia state.

The Labour Party in Abia State

The Obidients Movement in Nigeria and Mr Peter Obi, the Next President of Nigeria.

Jude Ejike Duruoma
Obidient, Osisioma Ngwa.