The immediate past Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Alex Otti, on Monday in Umuahia emerged the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, gubernatorial candidate for the February 2015 general election in Abia State.
At the gubernatorial primaries of the party held at the Lakewood Hotel along Aba Road, Umuahia, the state capital, Otti polled 485 votes out of a total of 503 votes cast to defeat his rival, Mr Chikwendu Udensi, who scored eight votes.
Out of a total of 511 delegates accredited for the primaries, 503 voted while 10 votes were voided.
Addressing party supporters shortly after he was declared winner by the chairman of the APGA electoral committee, Otti expressed his appreciation to the delegates for conducting themselves in an orderly manner during the conduct of the primaries.
An elated Otti said: “I must thank God for a very peaceful election and the delegates for their support. Let me also that those who didn’t vote for me because I know that as time goes on they will come to understand what we have come to do in APGA. All in all, I am very happy with the result of the primaries.’’
Fielding questions from journalists, the first class economist said the deplorable state of Abia is the main reason why he came out in the first instance but that it is not too late to salvage the situation adding that it could have been worse if “people like us did not take the bold step we took because I believe that I have the capacity, the skills and the network as well as the experience and training to turn the situation in Abia around.”
“In terms of potential, I believe that Abia state is blessed because we have the resources both material and human, creative minds and entrepreneurs. What is required is a little support from government by way of creating the enabling environment and that is exactly what I have come to do for my state,” he said.
The APGA governorship candidate reiterated his commitment to embark on massive infrastructural turn around across the state to aid commerce and industry even as he said that healthcare and educational systems in the state would be turned around if he becomes governor for the betterment of the citizenry.
He emphasised that his administration will ensure that teachers in the state receive proper training to enable them impact qualitative knowledge in school children at various levels in the state because according to him if the state is populated with high rate of uneducated class then the state has a problem in the future.
Otti, also pledged to create job opportunities for the teeming youth in the state in other to get them to be gainfully employed to dissuade them from social vices in the state.
He noted that a lot of Abians are farmers operating at subsistence level but however pledged to enhance their capacity to produce in commercial quantities.
While expressing his determination to run and win the governorship election in the state, the APGA candidate also reminded Abians that the time for their liberation is now and however, urged them not to allow it to be thwarted.
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