By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Abia State Governor has dismissed speculations linking him to the possibility of ditching the Labour Party.
This is as he distanced himself from rumours linking his political future to the emerging Coalition being cobbled together by some political forces led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El -Rufai, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, a former Governor of Rivers State ,and others remotely and indirectly associated with for President Muhammadu Buhari camp.
Peter Obi, the LP presidential Candidate during the 2023 General Elections is, also, believed strongly not to be averse to the coalition efforts, even though, for now, he has not publicly and openly declared his interest to join.
However, during his recent media interactive session, the former Anambra State Governor, gave an inkling.of his readiness to be on the Presidential ballot come 2027, but not on the wings of the LP.
His open admission of exiting LP, has expectedly fueled speculations that the Abia State Chief Executive, may be getting set to quit the Party in which he is the only Governor elected on its platform.
The Governor’s defection rumours are in the main fueled by his perceived closeness to the political camp of Obi,whose influence considerably rail-roaded him to the Abia State seat of power
But at an interactive session with members of the Abia State Global Economic Council in Umuahia, the State Capital, the Governor, noted that he is presently too concentrated on delivering good governance to the good people of the state to bother about the possibility of defection.
He maintained his earlier refrain to the effect that it is too early in the day to start talking about the 2027 general elections or political alignments and realignments.
The Abia State Governor while noting that he is not in anyway looking for where to defect, insisted that his major task now is to discharge the duties assigned to him by Abians.
While reaffirming his membership of, and loyality to the LP, Governor Otti explained that even though the political space is currently filled with talks about the formation of a coalition, he has neither been invited to, nor attended any of their meetings.
Similarly, he posited that while it is true that the LP had some problems bordering on leadership, he nevertheless insisted that the party has since settled the issues, with the Supreme Court pronouncement in April 2025.
” I will just spend a few minutes talking about what some members of the Global Economic Council have been asking me.
“One of them is the report about Governors decamping to APC. I am still a member of the Labour Party and i am not looking for where to decamp to.
“The second point is about coalition, and a lot of people have been asking me: ‘are you a member of the coalition’? And my response has been: ‘have you seen my name? Have you seen me attending the coalition meeting?’
“We are just busy doing the work Abia people have given to us. So, we are not attending any coalition meeting. I have not attended any one, and nobody has invited me.
“I am happy where I am. Yes we had issues in the Labour Party. In life, if you don’t have problems, then you are as good as dead. But when the problems come, you rise to the occasion. You don’t run away from them.
“When we had our problems, we fought all the way to the Supreme Court. I am convinced that a few issues that are remaining, as far as the problems are concerned, will be resolved very soon because the Supreme Court judgment is clear enough”, Governor Otti stated.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
