Don’t Provoke Abians Under The Guise Of LG Election, APC Chieftain Warns Otti

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

An All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain in Abia State, High Chief Sylvanus Uzoma Nwaji, has cautioned the State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, against perpetrating acts capable of inflaming passions, and brewing political crisis in the oil rich Ukwa West Council of the State.

This is even as he accused the Governor of insincerity, and a resort to anti-democratic tendencies in the count down to the November 2 scheduled Local Government Polls in the State.

The former Local Government Chairman of the only oil bearing Council in  Abia State warned that  nothing should be done by anybody, including the Governor, to undermine the internal political arrangements in place in the local council which over the years have served to promote peace and unity among the people.

According to the former House of Representatives candidate in the 2023 election, the people of the council has, since 1998, created and nurtured a rotational formula in the sharing of political offices, which in turn has fostered peace and understanding.

However, in an interview with this Magazine on Wednesday October 9, the APC stalwart, accused Governor Otti of deliberate efforts at undermining the time-tested power sharing arrangement among the people.

“For the record, there are three groupings in Ukwa West Local Government. These are the Asa, Ipu and Ozar groups. In 1998, when it was apparent that the military will truly handover power, the stakeholders from across the Council met and fashioned out a power-sharing arrangement.

“That understanding, I must say, have been in place since then. The people have come to see it as an article of faith, and have been religiously following it in the interest of peace.

“In this present Local Government Election, everybody in the Council is aware that it is the turn of the Ipu group to go for the Chairmanship of the Council.

“All the political parties, except the ruling Labour Party, LP, in the State, have selected their  Chairmanship candidates from the Ipu group

“If not that my party, APC, is boycotting the polls, we would have chosen our candidate from the same place .

“Now, the Governor, who is busy imposing and selecting candidates for the LP, has gone ahead to select somebody from the Ozar group that has just finished its slot.

“Our people have been agitating and shouting, but the Governor does not seem to care.

“What we are saying is that we don’t care about  who he, the Governor, selects or not, so long as the person is from Ipu group. He can not tell us that there are no qualified and capable LP members from Ipu  group,” Chief Nwaji noted.

He, however, stated that in the event the Governor  is not willing to listen to the people, and go for somebody from the rightful group, he should, in the alternative, allow for a free and fair polls.

“I can assure you, with certainty, that if there is a level playing ground, the people will vote for only those from the Ipu group. Even those from the Ozar group where he has gone to select somebody would not vote for the person from the same group with them because of the seriousness we attach to the zoning arrangements.

“But we know that the  election is not going to be free and fair. We know that the Governor has concluded plans to go the inglorious way of his colleagues who have conducted charades in the name of election”, Nwaji stated.

According to him,:the Ukwa people have been suffering untold external marginalization despite being the golden hen that lays the golden egg, and would not want to be subjected to an internal humiliation .

High Chief Nwaji warned that the people are more than ever ready to protect the sacred things that bind them together.

“Ever since the ill- advised decision to trample on the zoning arrangement, the entire place has been restive. People have been agitating and threatening.

“But we have been calming them, assuring them that the situation will be rectified. The people are  worried not because the Governor selected someone outside the rightful group. They are worried because they are aware that the Government will not allow their votes to count. They worried because the Governor is going to simply write the name of his nominee as the winner of the election.

“That is why they are saying ‘if you know you are not going to allow our votes to count, then go and select your candidate from the appropriate group.’

“But if they (Government) feel they can ignore the people and go ahead with their plans, well all I can say is that all men and women of good will should hold them responsible for any breach of the peace”, the former Council chairman  stated .

He expressed regret that despite earlier pleas from well meaning Abians for a free and fair election, Governor Otti is bent on manipulating the system to achieve a predetermined result.

“In my earlier comment I cautioned against falling for the temptation to manipulate the election having himself emerged from a relatively fair process in 2023 .

“But as it is, all indices point to a count down to a sham. That is why my party, the APC, has pulled  out of the process .

“There is no way we can  join in the coming charade . But let me warn that all of them at the State level who have been  manipulating the system and churning out ridiculous Local Government Election results, should not complain when, tomorrow,  they are outsmarted in a different election. I am saying this  because “tomorrow will surely come.” Nwaji stated.