Politics
Supreme Court ruling: Otti urges Abure-led faction to give peace a chance
Following last Friday’s Supreme Court ruling on the Labour Party court leadership, and the various interpretations given to the judgment on the fate of the party members, Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has told the Julius Abure- led faction of the party to give peace a chance.
The Supreme Court had in its judgment sacked the Abure-led faction of the Labour Party. However, Abure insisted that the apex court affirmed him as party chairman.
Speaking on Saturday while inaugurating the New Leadership of “Abia Arise” organization, a political pressure group, which is the grassroots support structure of his administration, Otti maintained that the Labour Party is bigger than every member.
His words, “The party is bigger and more important than any of us put together. The triumph of evil over good is for a moment. So, we thank God for yesterday. We somehow believed that justice will be done to the Labour Party.
“I was watching and saw some people making some claims about them not being removed by the Supreme Court. We can as well ignore them but I will not ignore them.
“I want to appeal to them to give peace a chance, except if what they wanted in the first place is to destroy the party. And, if they want to destroy the party, they will destroy themselves and the party will become even stronger.”
Governor Otti, thereafter, inaugurated the Abia Arise State Executive, Zonal and Local Government Coordinators with Mazi Nkem Okoro as State Chairman, Mrs. Sophia Chidinma Ikpeama as Vice Chairman and Dr. Sylvester Ibeneme as Secretary among other officials.
He congratulated them for being found worthy to serve as leaders of Abia Arise. He explained the reason for inaugurating the new leadership and charged the new leaders to be committed in delivering on their mandate.
“The decision to appoint new leaders is to inject new blood into the organisation to continually engage the people and get feedbacks to promote good governance in the State.
“Every community matters to us. So, we have appointed you to become our eyes and ears in your various localities, working closely with other stakeholders to enable us serve our people better.
“Your role will be very crucial in maintaining our grassroots support base and we encourage you to take it seriously.
“Your job will be to go into the communities and galvanize the support that we would need to consolidate on the immense gain that has been recorded in the last 22 months,” Gov. Otti stated.
Otti, who is the leader of the party in Abia state noted that, though he has done everything in the State, he had raised the bar in governance within the last 22 months in office. He therefore harped on the need for team-work and warned against infighting and internal bickering to ensure the essence of setting up the organisation in 2013 which is tailored towards the development of Abia State.
He explained that “Abia Arise” was instrumental to his team’s migration to the Labour Party and contributed immensely to the campaign and electoral victory of 2023.
The Governor who charged the Leadership to prioritize activities that would give the structure visibility in all LGAs ,while assuring that the board of trustee of the organisation would provide the necessary support that would assist Abia Arise to succeed.
Responding on behalf of his colleagues, the Chairman of Abia Arise, Mazi Nkem Okoro expressed his gratitude to the Governor and his leadership-style, which has affected the people positively. He further commended the Governor for selecting men and women of competence and capacity to drive his vision in government.
The Chairman promised to serve as the backbone of the Governor’s political engagements to ensure that the Governor succeeds in the State.
