2023: Otti Puts Kalu, Abia Leaders Under Pressure

By GWG Staff

Political leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Abia State are under pressure to find a workable formula to determine the zoning of the party’s governorship ticket for the 2023 governorship election, sources have told GWG.

The political leaders led by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, the Senate Chief Whip who is the highest Igbo man in the APC government, it was gathered are being pressed to find an arraignment that will accommodate former All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA chieftain, Dr. Alex Otti.

Abia political leaders had in the past used the charter of equity to harness political positions in the state. under the arrangement, the state was divided into two, the Old Bende to the north and Ukwa Ngwa to the south.

However, the division of the state into three senatorial districts made it that three local government areas in Ukwa Ngwa, to wit, Isiala Ngwa South, Isiala Ngwa North and Ossisioma though Ngwa speaking have found themselves in the Central Senatorial District.

Otti, a former Group Managing Director of the defunct Diamond Bank, fought Governor Okeize Ikpeazu to standstill in the 2015 and 2019 governorship elections when he vied on the platform of APGA.

His decision to now decamp to the APC according to sources is now posing serious concern not just on his prospects in displacing existing permutations, but also on justifying his aspiration based on zoning.

Dr. Otti has had difficulties explaining to some people about his place of origin within Abia.

He is registered in Isiala Ngwa North in Abia Central, but it is claimed that he is from Arochukwu, hence Ngwa political leaders saw him as a spoiler when their opportunity to first produce a governor came in 2015.

To win the support of the people of Isiala Ngwa ahead of the 2015 election, he built a beautiful house to identify with the people of the place. However, his critics claim that the house he earlier built in Arochukwu is bigger and more sophisticated with a helipad.

Based on Otti’s possible third run, some political leaders within and outside the APC in the state according to GWG sources are now contemplating retuning to the Old Bende and Ukwa Ngwa charter of equity.

Those proposing the framework say that Governors Orji Kalu and Theodore Orji who are both from the Old Bende spent a total of 16 years and that as such, the Ukwa Ngwa axis should also have another eight years after the second term of Governor Ikpeazu.

However, that argument no matter how shrilling has yet to find good traction.

“It will be a difficult thing to argue, we have passed that stage,” a political stakeholder with knowledge of the state told GWG.

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