A prominent lawyer and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress in Abia State, Eze Chikamnayo has urged Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, to prevail on Governor Alex Otti to show accountability.
Chikamnayo who made the call in a statement on Monday, asked Obi to mke Otti publish the list, location, contractors and pictures of the purported 51 public school projects for which over 54 billion naira has been allegedly spent between the first and fourth quarters of 2024.
He faulted Obi for not criticising Otti amid concerns about corruption allegations.
According to him, Peter Obi should stop talking about Indonesia, China and others but talk about the Labour Party government in Abia State.
He said, “If we talk about accountability at the federal level and we refuse to talk about it at the state and local government levels, we make ourselves hypocrites, and it undermines the essence of good governance in Nigeria.
“We have a message for Mr Peter Obi. He is galvanising Indonesia, going to India, and even going to Egypt to look for models of how he thinks Nigeria should be governed. I say to Mr Peter Obi to stop the hypocrisy. You don’t need to go to Indonesia or anywhere in the world. Mr Peter Obi should go to Abia State. This is the only Labour Party (LP) state in Nigeria.
“He should go there and ask Mr Alex Otti how the N54 billion meant for education has been taken for smart schools, and no single school is to be found.”
The APC group, while thanking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for ignoring Alex Otti’s invitation to commission some projects last week, added that the governor will be roundly defeated by competent and capable loyal members of APC in the 2027 election.
He said, “We will not welcome Mr Alex Otti with his excess baggage, and with his corruption, and with his lack of transparency, and with his lack of accountability to APC at the state.
“Anybody who is thinking that he is going to cooperate with Mr Alex Otti to continue his era of complete intimidation, his era of complete impunity, and his era of complete anarchy in Abia State by joining APC through the backdoor – such a person is daydreaming. Abia State APC has in its kitty competent men who are capable of joining hands with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make sure that APC and the Renewed Hope Agenda are made available to the people of Abia State, both at the state and the local government level.
“So, therefore, we will replace Mr Alex Otti come 2027 with an APC government that will make sure that the Renewed Hope Agenda is spread to the grassroots in Abia State.”
He added that the opposition can defeat Otti in 2027.
“People who are saying that Alex Otti is not beatable are building castles in the air. Mr Alex Otti knows within his heart that he is completely using the machinery of media propaganda and manipulation to build an image that doesn’t exist,” he stated.
Tell Otti to account for N54bn school projects – APC Chieftan, Chikamnayo to Peter Obi