By Ogochukwu Isioma
A youth group in the Abia State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Abia Progressive Youth Forum, has warned the Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti, to stop intimidating the judiciary through his proxies.
The group spoke in a statement by Pius Okoro and Mazi Tobechukwu Iwuoha, Convener and Secretary respectively.
In the statement on Friday in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, the group said it has “observed with dismay the deliberate attempt by Alex Otti and his camp to either scuttle the judicial process challenging his election which right thinking people consider flawed in many respects, or to intimidate the judiciary into surrendering its independence and forthrightness to a mob set in motion by Otti, or both, since it became public knowledge that the March 18 election is being challenged in court by multiple candidates”.
The group, which described Otti’s incoming government as an “interim one”, said it was “confident that the judiciary will upturn INEC’s declaration of Otti as winner of the election since several provisions of the Electoral Act were flagrantly breached by Mr Otti.
“Having suddenly realised that his will be the first Interim government in Abia State since the inception of this democratic dispensation, Alex Otti has been recruiting all manner of people to intimidate the judiciary by causing them to severely disparage that arm of government with a view to influencing their judgement.
“The frantic recruitment of political and non political actors especially those from outside Abia State to make statements in favour of Alex Otti is a ploy by him to create for himself a non-existent larger-than-life status before the public with a view to causing the judiciary to view him from that standpoint when in fact a majority of Abians are already expressing pains and regrets due to the sufferings they are subjected to because of Otti’s desperate antics to strangulate the subsisting government by causing an unnecessary freezing of the state’s accounts through subterfuge, an action that has impacted negatively on the people and crippled economic activities in the state.
“This situation, the ill-advised invitation of a former head of a military junta, General Yakubu Gowon, who led the 1967-1970 pogrom against the Igbo to come and lead a prayer for Otti’s takeover, and several of his faux pas, have left Abians disillusioned, disappointed and regretful of Otti’s flawed emergence.
“We urge the judiciary to remain forthright and not allow itself to be swayed by Otti’s antics of publicity stunt to hold Abians to ransom for too long but work by the books and save Abians from this looming catastrophe.
“Lastly, we urge Abians to remain prayerful and steadfast as those who hoodwinked some of them into political error but are the same ones now piling misery upon them will soon be relieved of their stolen mandate by our ever-reliable courts of law.”
