Governor Alex Otti of Abia State again reaffirmed his earlier statement crediting Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s development blueprint as the foundation for the ongoing infrastructural transformation in Aba and other parts of the state, a model introduced by Kalu during his tenure as Governor from 1999 to 2007.
Fielding questions from Journalists Abia state on Thursday evening during his monthly media parley tagged “Gov. Alex Otti Speaks to Abians”, held at the Government House, Umuahia, the Governor addressed a question from Ifeanyi Okali of ABN TV seeking clarification on the viral remarks which the Governor emphasised were factual and quoted out of context by some media outlets.
The Governor responsed;
“Sometimes when news is reported, it’s taken out of context,” Otti began. “If you understand the context of that statement what I said was that when former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu started in 1999, he faced Aba and tried to build a lot of roads in that place.
“The idea is that if you get Aba right, then the rest of the state can easily be fixed. Because Aba is a place that can generate enough internally generated revenue to help and support and fix other parts of the state and that is exactly what we are doing.”
On whether he deliberately ignored the templates of the two succeeding former governors ( Senator Theodore Orji, Okezie Ikpeazu ) Governor Otti replied with humour;
“When the press ask about the template about the other two former Governors, I am sure that you are going somewhere and I will let you land. And it’s for me to choose what template I want to choose, so when you become Governor, you pick all of them and put them together (laughs).
“But anyway, that’s the context under which the statement was made, and it is a correct statement.”
Governor Otti reiterated his idea to begin his the state’s development strategy from Aba which he said is as a result of internal revenue generation.
