APGA guber candidate denied Abia benefits as top banker, says govt

Otti reacts, predicts landslide victory for his party

FORMER Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank Plc and Abia state All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in this year’s election Dr Alex Otti , has been described as unsuitable for the  governorship of the state even as he  was accused of  fabricating lies  in his electioneering campaigns against the state government led by Chief Theodore Orji.

 But the APGA governorship flag-bearer has dismissed the allegations even as he said that neither he as a person nor his party APGA could justifiably be  linked to the fabrications by the

has urged the people of the state to vote him in as their next governor.  

  Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Charles Ajunwa, in a statement, faulted  Dr. Otti’s criticism of the policies and programmes of governor Theodore Orji’s government saying “Dr. Otti  on the pages of newspapers deceive gullible readers that teachers in the state are on strike because of non payment of salaries  with aim to paint  black the  state government’s commendable and visible  face-lifting  achievements in the sector.

 The state government under Governor  Orji  built ultra modern classroom blocks in all parts of the state and put in place robust welfare packages for teachers which attests to why  the governor  is being rated as the most education-friendly governor in Nigeria.

  He berated Otti for not using his exalted office while he was the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank to execute any single project in Abia State disclosing that even when sometime in 2013, the governor gave him a template on how to reduce the money that his bank was taking from the state government, he  Otti turned down the template.

 “If Otti  had agreed to implement the template, it would have helped Abia State government to add more projects to those already executed by governor T.A.Orji.

  He  also not only  refused to oblige the governor’s proposal on how to free  some money from his bank to pay salaries, Otti also turned down all the proposals on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) on major projects which the state governor presented to him”.

 The statement noted that Otti did not use his position as Group Managing Director to establish any branch of the bank in his local government area or assist Abia State government to realize some of the people-oriented projects put together by Governor Orji, but instead goes  about faulting the same government he refused to assist.

 According  to  Ajunwa’s statement made available to The Guardian yesterday, “it is  laughable that the same Otti who could deny his ancestral home  in Arochukwu for another place also goes about priding himself as lover of Abians  even when it is doubtful he has anything good to  offer Abia people whom he should know, are now wiser hence, Abia State is not for sale to the highest bidder”.