The Chairman of the Abia State chapter of the Labour Party (LP), Emmanuel Otti, has debunked the rumours that Governor Alex Otti worked against the party in the last council poll.
Naija News recall that the ruling party in the state lost to candidates of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the local government election conducted in the state.
Otti, in an interview with Punch, when asked how he feels about Governor Otti asking his supporters to vote for any candidate they believed would deliver good governance, said, “First, let me correct an impression. Dr Alex Otti, the Governor of Abia State, did not and cannot authorise his supporters (to contest under a different party), knowing that he is a member of the Labour Party, and he is the governor of Abia State and a leader of the LP in Abia State and Nigeria.
“Therefore, he cannot and would not authorise or mandate his supporters to go to another party, either to promote or to contest. Rather, he said that the electorate should vote for any candidate of their choice, who they believe can deliver, and which they have the constitutional right to do.
“Otti voted for a candidate of his choice in the election, and he knows the person he voted for will deliver. I, as state LP chairman, voted for candidates of my choice.
“This is just like in a family, you have five females, and you won’t make a choice of husbands for them, but allow them to go and choose the husbands of their choice. It is their constitutional right to do that.
“So, if the governor told the electorate to ‘vote any candidate of your choice,’ who you know will follow the same page, the page of development, the page of taking care of the welfare and security of the people in their various localities, which is the grassroots, he has not done anything out of the ordinary.
“This is because the people at the grassroots know the contestants and the contestants know the people, irrespective of the political affiliation of the contestants. It is also the right of the electorate to choose and not the governor to select for them.”