Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has again dismissed the rumour of his plans to dump the Labour Party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Otti last week through a statement from his media aide dispelled the speculation after media reports that he had finalised talks with the leadership of the APC to jump ship.
Otti was a chieftain of the APC before he moved to Labour Party in 2023 where he contested and won the governorship election in the state, defeating his closest rival and candidate of the ruling PDP in the state.
However, in an interview with Arise Television, the Abia State Governor laughed off the idea of joining the ruling party to get closer to the president.
Otti 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 decamp 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.”
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