The Abia State government has described the “factional governorship candidate” of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Alex Otti, as a “pathological liar whom it said fabricates all manner of white lies against the state government with the aim of boosting his dead on arrival governorship ambition.”
Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Mr. Charles Ajunwa, in a statement he made available to journalists in Umuahia, said that Dr. Otti has no moral right to criticize the policies and programmes of Governor Theodore Orji’s government.
He said: “Dr. Otti is not qualified to talk about the educational sector in Abia State which Governor Orji has given a face lift. He built ultra-modern classroom blocks in all parts of the state and came up with a robust welfare package for teachers which attest to why Governor Orji is today described as the most education friendly governor in Nigeria. And for the past two years, Abia State maintained its 2nd best position behind Anambra State according to WAEC rating.
“Otti has no moral right to go on the pages of newspapers to deceive gullible readers that teachers in the state are on strike because of non-payment of salaries which is far from the truth. The planted story was aimed at painting Abia State government in bad light.”
Continuing, he said: “This is the same man, who as Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, refused to use his exalted office to execute any single project in Abia State. Sometime in 2013, the governor gave him a template on how to reduce the money that his bank was taking from the state government. He turned down the template for selfish reasons.
“If he had agreed to implement the template, that would have helped Abia State government to add more projects to those already executed by Governor T.A.Orji.
“The proposal was on how to free up some money from his bank to pay salaries; he refused to oblige the governor. He did not stop at that, he also turned down all the proposals on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) on major projects which the state governor presented to him.
“The truth is that Governor Orji is a genuine leader who is proud of his roots unlike Otti who everybody knows hails from Arochukwu Local Government Area but funny enough denied his ancestry because of his vaulting governorship ambition. It is a well-known fact that Otti, who could not use his position as Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank to build any branch of the bank in his local government or assist Abia State government to realize some of the people-oriented projects put together by Governor Orji, is going about telling white lies against the same government he refused to assist.
“It’s laughable that the same Otti, who could deny his ancestral home for another place also goes about priding himself as a lover of Abians, which he is not. Otti should go and bury his head in shame because he has nothing to offer Abia people. He should know that Abians are now wiser, Abia State is not for sale to the highest bidder,” he said.
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