By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Insiders in the unfolding liaison between the All Progressives Congress, APC and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA in Abia state have boasted that Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu’s days in the Government House, Umuahia are numbered. They told this magazine that strategic partnership between the two parties that will see APGA’s gubernatorial candidate, Alex Otti collapse his ambition into that of APC’s Uche Ogah.
Though APGA in Abia and Otti’s camp have stridently denied any electoral alliance with APC, eggheads of the arrangement who pleaded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the alliance insist the two parties are indeed collaborating to unseat Governor Ikpeazu saying, the collaboration was in tandem with the pact both parties have at the national level. The pact, this magazine learnt was to form a common front in all the South east states where the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is strong and thwart the party’s victory there in the 2019 elections.
According to sources, former governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu who himself is the APC Senatorial candidate for Abia North, has given his blessing to the alleged Abia APC/ APGA alliance. Otti and Ogah are both close to the former governor. While Ogah’s brother was Commissioner for Health during his administration, Otti who was at that time the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, reportefly got the Bank to manage Abia’s finances.
The Source has been told that under the alliance, in the event of Ogah’s victory, Otti will likely emerge Secretary to the Government of Abia state.In addition, juicy Ministries, including Ministries of Finance and Works will be ceded Otti’s loyalists in APGA.
Commenting on the 2019 Abia governorship election, a former Senator and a member of Abia Council of Elders admitted that the exercise will be tight but tipped Ikpeazu for victory. The former federal lawmaker told The source that one of the greatest drawbacks facing Otti in the election is the crisis of identity which he said the APGA candidate is entangled in.”Nobody is sure where he comes from. When its suitable for him, he claims he is an Ngwa son, and when it appears his political bread is better buttered elsewhere, he prides himself as an Arochukwu scion. Of course, Alex Otti built a mansion in Arochukwu, his ancestral root”, the former Senator told this Magazine.
Meanwhile,Governor Ikpeazu has told The Source that he was not perturbed by the alleged alliance between the two main opposition parties in the state to unseat him. Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Enyinnaya Appolos, the Abia number one citizen said: “The alliance, if it is indeed true, confirms our position that in the coming governorship election in Abia, we have no opponents. Both APC and APGA are utterly fictionalized and disorganised in Abia.Their alliance is no threat because they are incapable of achieving victory in Abia. We are not perturbed because Abians will decide. The level of economic and infrastructural development this government has brought to Abia sit well with Abians and they have resolved to vote us back to office”, he said.
