By Steve Oko

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has told the sacked National Chairman of the Labour Party Julius Abure-led faction to lay down their weapons and embrace peace.

Recall that the Supreme Court, on Friday, sacked Abure as the LP National Chairman, affirming Senator Nenadi Usman as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party.

Otti spoke at the weekend following the “misleading interpretations being given to the Supreme Court judgement that sacked Abure’s led faction of the LP.”

Governor Otti, who spoke while inaugurating the new leadership of Abia Arise Organisation, his political structure ahead of 2027, said that the Labour Party is bigger than any of its members.

He said: “The party (LP) is bigger and more important than any of us put together. The triumph of evil over good is for a moment. So, we thank God for yesterday. We somehow believed that justice would be done to the Labour Party.

“I was watching and saw some people making some claims about them not being removed by the Supreme Court. We can as well ignore them, but I will not ignore them.

“I want to appeal to them to give peace a chance, except, if what they wanted in the first place is to destroy the party, and if they want to destroy the party, they will destroy themselves and the party will become even stronger.”

Governor Alex Otti inaugurated the Abia Arise State Executive, Zonal and Local Government Coordinators with Mazi Nkem Okoro as State Chairman, Mrs Sophia Chidinma Ikpeama as Vice Chairman and Dr Sylvester Ibeneme as Secretary, among other officials.

He congratulated them on being found worthy to serve as leaders of Abia Arise, his administration’s grassroots support structure.

Otti explained the reason for inaugurating the new leadership and charged the new leaders with being committed to delivering on their mandate.

“The decision to appoint new leaders was to inject new blood into the organisation to continually engage the people and get feedback to promote good governance in the state.

“Every community matters to us. So, we have appointed you to become our eyes and ears in your various localities, working closely with other stakeholders to enable us to serve our people better.

“Your role will be crucial in maintaining our grassroots support base, and we encourage you to take it seriously.

“Your job will be to go into the communities and galvanise the support that we would need to consolidate on the immense gain that has been recorded in the last 22 months,” Gov. Otti stated.

Gov. Otti noted that, though he had done everything in the State and had raised the bar in governance within the last 22 months in office, “there is still need to sustain and consolidate on the gains.”

Therefore, he harped on the need for teamwork and warned against infighting and internal bickering to ensure and protect the essence of setting up the organisation in 2013, which is tailored towards the development of Abia State.

Otti noted that Abia Arise was instrumental to his team’s migration to the Labour Party and contributed immensely to the campaign and electoral victory of 2023.

The Governor charged the leadership with prioritising activities that would give the structure visibility in all LGAs while assuring that the organisation’s board of trustees provides the necessary support that will help Abia Arise succeed. Responding on behalf of his colleagues, the Chairman of Abia Arise, Mazi Nkem Okoro, expressed his profound gratitude to the Governor and his leadership style, which has positively affected the people. He further commended the Governor for selecting men of competence and capacity to drive his vision in government.

The chairman promised to serve as the backbone of the governor’s political engagements and ensure the Governor’s success in the state.

Vanguard News