Abia guber: Otti pledges to abolish non-natives policy

A governorship aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has assured residents of the state that if elected, his administration will abolish the non-natives policy

Addressing party faithful from the 17 local government areas of the state on Tuesday during a reception organised in his honour by the leadership of the party at the APGA’s state secretariat in Umuahia, Otti described the policy as criminal, adding that before the state was created, Abia was part of Imo State as well as old eastern region. He assured that all residents would be treated equally.
According to him, non-indigenes of Abia State contributed to the development of the state and therefore must be regarded as stakeholders to ensure justice, equity and fairness.
“If you go to Aba today and take census of the people who have huge investments in the city, you would be amazed that the indigenous Aba people would be in the minority. That is how it is in major cities across Nigeria,’’ he said.
The APGA gubernatorial aspirant also used the opportunity of the event to inform members of the party that he and his team, Abia First, were not coming into the party to assume control of the structures already established by them, but to find ways of strengthening it.
He also informed the gathering that he left his plum job at Diamond Bank to deliver Abia from 16 years of locust and cankerworm infestations.
Assuring party faithful that the task of transforming Abia though quite daunting, yet it is a possibility that could be achieved by tested and trusted hand who had the integrity to get genuine support from national and international organisations without putting the citizenry under bondage.
“My convictions in pursuing this project to its logical conclusion lies in the fact that God is sending me and also has directed my path to find the money to carry out a surgical operation in all areas of concern of my people in Abia State and I believe that because He that is in us is greater than he that is with opposing forces, our victory is assured,’’ he said
On the insinuation that he may decamp to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after winning election, Otti dismissed such insinuation, saying his thirst to accomplish his vision for Abia on the platform of APGA dated back to two years when he participated in the burial arrangements of the late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu.
He explained that pitching his tent in APGA was essentially to come back home, saying every Igbo man was APGA by heart. According to him, the party remained a movement, consciously established for the emancipation of Nigerians.
While admonishing APGA members in the state to close ranks and work like a team, he pledged to accommodate shades of opinion on how to build a formidable party that would not only win the 2015 elections, but also become a reference movement for the deliverance of free society.
Earlier, the state Chairman of APGA, Prince Onapuruagu Ukaegbu, described Dr. Otti as the biblical David sent by God to rescue Abians from hopelessness and neglect spanning over 15 years.