By Kolawole Ojebisi
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has denied planning to dump the Labour Party (LP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Otti spoke during an interview with Arise Television on Friday, dismissing the claim that joining the ruling party will get closer to the president.
He said he did not need to defect to the APC to get closer to the seat of power, adding that everybody did not need to join the ruling party.
He said, “Governor Otti is not decamping and my party is not on shaky ground.”
When asked if he needed to defect to get close to the centre like Okowa and Oborevwori did, Otti said, “I am even closer to the centre than some of them.”
“This is Democracy, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu held on to his Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC) Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), before becoming APC. If he was (defection), he won be President today. Sometimes, you have to also stand for something,” Otti said.
Given the leadership crisis in the LP, Otti is not certain about his future in the party. When asked if he would ever leave the Labour Party, the governor said, “I am not God. I cannot say if there’s no LP tomorrow.”
Recall that Otti’s political journey has taken him from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and then to the APC before joining the LP, the party that brought him power in 2023.
Speculations about Otti’s defection heightened following recent sweeping defection that took over the PDP’s age-long structure in Delta State.
During their official reception ceremony, former Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, said he and his successor, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, joined the APC to connect Delta State to Aso Rock, the seat of power.
