"Alex Otti's Desperate Past Is Haunting Him Now"

Maduka Ikoh

In 2014 when Alex Otti procured APGA’s Governorship ticket, like a desperate political merchant, he made the case that Chief Reagan Ufomba should not be allowed to run a second time after failing to win the Governorship in 2011.

He copiously cited political conventions from within and outside Nigeria to buttress his position. With enough ill gotten wealth from wheeling and dealing with all kinds of characters in the banking industry, he managed to convince then party Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, to smell the cash and deliver the ticket to him weeks after the left the PDP that was unwilling to trade her Governorship ticket for N3b upfront and N7b later.

Fast forward to 2018.

Highly liquid Chief Chikwe Udensi who was among those Otti chased out of APGA in 2011 is making exactly the same case Otti made in 2014: no losing Governorship candidate is given the ticket to run the next election in same political party.

Udensi recently disposed off his assets in South Africa and is now very liquid with Chief Victor Oye (current APGA Chairman) being reportedly in his pocket.

Udensi and Oye are now singing Otti’s 2014 song from same hymn book.

Sensing disgrace at the APGA primaries, arrogant Otti is now hiring and sponsoring media misfits to sign petitions and publish advertorials to malign Udensi and accuse him of being in Governor Okezie’s pocket.

Interestingly, the hitherto confident Otti is panicking. After seeing the caliber of APGA stakeholders and members, who were mobilized from Abia State as against those he rented from outside the state, that attended the Udensi declaration rally it has dawned on him that the APGA Governorship ticket is slipping away from him.

Almost all those who supported Otti in 2015 have either joined Governor Ikpeazu in PDP or aligned with Udensi’s faction of APGA. The list is endless: Damian Ozurumba, Tony Ukasanya, Reagan Ufomba, Ahamdi Nweke, Chris Nkwonta, Moses Orji, seven APGA house of assembly members, all LGA campaign directors of Otti’s Abia First group etc.

In response, Otti is running from pillar to post to stave off direct primaries in APGA in the hope that Governor Willie Obiano will help him compel party leaders who are mostly from Anambra State to support him as a consensus candidate.

Otti’s case is made worse by his poor financial war chest which was grossly depleted after the desperate legal battle he fought with Governor Ikpeazu with more than N3b lost to rogue judges, political jobbers, fraudsters, Spiritualists, rogue INEC officials etc.

Similarly, a cheque of two million naira issued by Otti to one Maduka Akpulonu who organized a rally at a brothel along Ikot Ekpnene road in Obingwa, reportedly bounced and the man is telling whoever cares to listen that he will deal with Otti if the cheque is not redeemed within one week.

It is instructive to note that a fund raising event organized by Otti in Lagos failed to attract notable campaign donors.

According to one of those who attended the event, “after eating Otti’s food non of those who attended could donate as much as five hundred thousand naira for his election.”

Apparently those who fell for Otti’s 2015 political scam have decided that a high performing Governor Ikpeazu is undefeatable and they have chosen to ignore Otti’s propaganda and lies on how he agreed with President Buhari and APC leaders to deploy soldiers and policemen to help him execute what he called “the Ekiti Magic”.

 

Ikoh writes from Umuahia