Ikpeazu, Otti trade words over election petition withdrawal

PETER OKORIE

Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and his main challenger in the last Abia State governorship election, Alex Otti, are currently trading words over Otti’s claim that the governor had appealed to him to withdraw their petitions against him in court.

Otti was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the gubernatorial poll in the state, and had challenged the victory of Ikpeazu at the Elections Petitions Tribunal in the state.

He had in a media report claimed that Ikpeazu sent different emissaries to him for a truce on the matter before the tribunal.

He described his claim to victory at the said election as non-negotiable and that only the state electorate “have the right to withdraw a mandate freely given” to him.

In a statement titled ‘My governorship Mandate Is Non-Negotiable’, Otti described the rumour that he was holding secret talks with his opponent’s emissaries for a possible withdrawal of the petition and dump his mandate as untrue.

“The rumour is baseless, blatant falsehood and the wishful thinking of idle political jobbers and rumour peddlers in their deliberate attempt to cause mischief and deceive unsuspecting members of the public.

“To negotiate away the mandate from Abia people, who trooped out in their numbers and voted for me because of their conviction and belief in my ability to bring about the desired change, will amount to a betrayal of the people’s trust.

“I have advised the emissaries to first of all go and negotiate with all the Abia sons and daughters that voted for me and if they succeed in persuading them to denounce the mandate they gave to me, then they can return to me for negotiation”.

He assured the electorate that he had the capacity to claim and exercise the mandate given him and urged them not to despair, saying “although weeping may endure for the night, joy cometh in the morning.”

According to Otti, who until he joined the governorship contest was the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank, different emissaries from his opponents had continued to approach him for a truce but insisted that no amount of persuasion would make him to relinquish the mandate.

However, Governor Ikpeazu claimed that he did not appeal to Alex Otti to withdraw the petition at the elections tribunal.

Ikpeazu said that contrary to the claim, he did not send emissaries to beg him to withdraw the petition he filed at the tribunal, stressing that the APGA candidate lied in the claim.

Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, he said that the claim by Otti that he sent emissaries to beg him was meant to create a false impression that he (Ikpeazu) was in a tight corner.

He challenged the APGA candidate to make public the identities of the emissaries he claimed to have approached him on his behalf.

He urged people of the state not to take Otti serious if he failed to make public the identities of the emissaries purportedly sent to beg him.

According to the governor, tribunals don’t work with sentiment, the tribunal should be allowed to do its work.

He called on the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to call an Umuahia-based radio station to order, saying that the station had been broadcasting prejudicial materials on the tribunal’s proceedings.