Abia PDP group challenges Otti to tender proof of dupping claims  * Says ex-banker ‘political rolling stone’

Abia PDP group challenges Otti to tender proof of dupping claims

* Says ex-banker ‘political rolling stone’

By  Steve Oko

A support group of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Abia State known as Abia PDP Renaissance Front, has challenged the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA in the 2019 election, Dr. Alex Otti, to provide evidence of his claims  that he was duped by PDP when he joined the party in 2014 or stop blackmailing the party.

The group which threw the challenge while responding to Otti’s claims that PDP defrauded him and later dumped him, accused the ex-banker of political infidelity.

According to the group, the inability of Otti to stay put with a political party signposts his self opinionated  tendencies and lack of team spirit.

The PDP group also mocked Otti for his recent  dumping of APGA and defection to the All Progressive Congress, APC, describing him as a “political rolling stone”.

The group in a statement signed by Uchenna Okechukwu said it had confronted the then Chairman of the party, Senator Emma Nwaka, who denied any knowledge of the alleged dupping, hence, its challenge to Otti to provide evidence or keep his peace.

It read : “The attention of Abia PDP Renaissance Front has been drawn to Alex Otti’s remarks at his Arochukwu country home where he hosted some members of his current political party. Inter alia, he was quoted as having said ” I spent so much money when I was in the PDP but at the end I discovered they are all fraudulent in PDP.  I was duped by the PDP, so I had to leave the party for them “.

“But for this mendacious  statement, we would have ignored the peripatetic, political rolling stone called Alex Otti.  Incidentally the sojourn of Otti in PDP coincided with the period, Senator Emma Nwaka, an iconic political  figure whose zero tolerance for bribery is well known  when he held sway as State Chairman of Abia PDP.

“It is interesting to note that  many years after he ceased to be the State Chairman of Abia PDP, Senator Emma Nwaka’s incorruptibility is still spoken about with reverence and admiration. So if there is one person who should know whether Otti was duped it is Emma Nwaka as the symbol of the party at the material time   hence we of Abia PDP Renaissance Front as his admirers decided to confront him with Otti’s sweeping allegation. Nwaka told us that at no point did he negotiate with Otti or coerce him to part with his  money for his use or funding of the party. He challenged Otti to repudiate his claim.

“Being satisfied with Nwaka’s position, we advise Otti to learn to live with his self-inflicted political woes. Other stakeholders we spoke with told us that Otti’s problem is that he is not a team player; it is either his way or no other. They said he was rebuffed and told to his face that PDP ticket was not for sale.

” Being a moneybag, he stormed into APGA where he created so much bad blood and muscled his way to grab the ticket. But by then his antics had so weakened the party  and alienated influential party faithful resulting in his running a one-man show. Against that background, you just wonder how he expected to win.

“What we realised is that Otti’s nature is not attuned to the collective process of decision making in politics. Otti is more at home in the corporate world where with eyes trained on the balance sheet he hires and fires with scant regard to the collateral damage of his actions.

“Someone, should tell Otti that desparadoes hardly succeed in politics.  It speaks volumes that one man has two country homes in one state. When it suits him, Abia Central becomes his place of origin. Today, he has gone back to his other country home  in  Arochukwu in Abia North which we are sure when the time comes  he’ll claim as his ancestral home so he can bid for the entitlement of Abia North people and if he fails, we won’t be surprised to hear that he has migrated to Ebonyi State, all within the short period of his uneventful uninspiring  political life.

“Having left PDP, Otti should leave the party alone. It doesn’t speak well of Otti that he speaks ill of every establishment he has worked with. Many years after leaving Diamond Bank, he is still sponsoring diatribes against the now defunct bank .

 “Today, many years after his departure from PDP, Otti is still busy excoriating the party. We are sure that the only reason why he spared APGA during the reception in Arochukwu was because of the presence of Senator Victor Umeh. APC should brace up for it will be their turn next.

“Referring to people like Otti, our people would say that  a man who fights at every market he steps into must be a trouble maker because there is no way all the people at various markets will conspire against one man .

” Our advice to Alex Otti is: if he knows how to pound, he should direct his pestle into the mortar or keep hitting it against his laps.”