Pioneer leader of Abia State caucus and member of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Caucus, Chief Sam Nkire has congratulated Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party on his election as the next Governor of Abia State.
In a congratulatory message which he made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Nkire described the Abia State governor-elect as “a man whose time has come”.
He advised Otti to unite the people of Abia, worry less about witch-hunting and chasing his opponent.
The APC stalwart said his only regret was that his party, APC allowed Otti to leave APC when it became obvious that he was not going to get a fair deal at the primary election.
He said: “What APC lost in Alex has become a building block and great profit to the Labour Party (LP).
“One thing most Abians give to Alex Otti is that he is one of the most zealous and prepared for the arduous task of taking Abia State to the enviable, developmental height it and its people ought to occupy.
“I hope Otti would quickly get down to the business of uplifting and uniting his people, the people of Abia State and forget about witch-hunt and opponent-chasing”.
Nkire added that as a former, respected, APC member, the incoming Governor of Abia State would leverage on his past relationships to attract ‘federal presence’ from the ruling party to the state.
Kogi Gov’ship: Leke Joins Race, Vows To Revive LGAs
By Orjime Moses, Abuja
The House of Representative member representing Yagba federal constituency of Kogi State Hon Leke Abejide has joined the governorship race in the state on the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC).
He however promised to revive the local governments in the state to ensure quality governance in the state.
Leke officially declared his intention to run for the exalted seat when he led his supporters to the national secretariat of the party yesterday in Abuja to pick up the nomination and expression of interest forms.
Speaking with journalists after the official purchase of the nomination form, Hon Leke Abejide, said he joined the contest on the prompting of people of the state who urged him to replicate the good works he was doing at his constituency.
He said, “The people want me to do exactly what I have been doing in my federal constituency, where we give access roads, we provide water for them, we give them light, we give them free education which they have been doing for the past five years.
“Why it is difficult to sit me in my constituency is because the women are behind me, all the widows in that constituency are solidly behind and I’m going to take care of them.
“We will make sure we feed them and cloth them, the children that are going to school we send them to school free of charge, they will write SSCE for free. This we can do because we have done it in our federal constituency with the resources that God has given us.
“I was telling the INEC chairman that people listened when they rigged gubernatorial election of some states, you will be hearing APC 200,000 votes and all that but party’s like ADC you will be hearing of 240 votes and I said this time they will hear ADC 10,000 votes 20,000 votes in one local government and across the state and so shall it be,” he said.
He commended INEC for conducting the most free and fair presidential, national assembly elections and gubernatorial, states assembly elections. He said the elections are the most free and fair elections conducted in the history of Nigeria.
“You know, I have contested elections twice and I have won twice, in every polling unit you have your agent before results are announced and all the agencies are given a copy.”
He said that the local government system have been killed, adding that if elected he will revive the local government system.
