.jpg)
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia, Dr. Alex Otti, has said that he will initiate economic activities that will help to create wealth in the state, if elected.
Otti said this on Saturday, while addressing thousands of his supporters during a town hall meeting at Abiriba in Ohafia Local Government Area of the state.
He said: ‘’I have come to fix Abia and I will create wealth. I will not share money, I will not give people fish but I will teach them how to fish,’’ he said.
He promised to embark on sustainable youth and women empowerment programmes, saying that the environment would be made friendly for the private sector to come in and invest with a view to creating jobs.
Otti described the driving of tricycles (popularly called keke) by unemployed graduates in order to cater to their needs due to the lack of decent jobs as demeaning.
The former Diamond Bank chief executive said that ‘’we represent change.’’
He said that only people who were satisfied with the current economic difficulties in the state would vote for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the elections.
He decried the state government’s failure to pay salaries and pensions, running into many months, saying that people were living below the poverty line of N200 per day.
He also expressed worry over the infrastructure deficit in all parts of the state and assured the Abiriba people that he would address the problem, if voted into office.
‘’I know where to get the money,’’ he said, adding that the International Finance Corporation was ready to assist Abia with grants for development.
‘’They are waiting in the wings to give it to Abia,’’ he said, adding that the organisation only go to those who are transparent and with integrity.
‘’They do not give it to those who will pocket the money,’’ he said, adding that he utilized the facility to revive and restructure Diamond Bank.
Otti described as ‘’greed, insatiability and insensitivity,’’ the ambition of Gov. Theodore Orji to seek election to the Senate after eight years as Chief of Staff and two tenures as governor, while his son, Chinedu, is also contesting the House of Assembly election.
‘’And not satisfied, he chose 18 out of the 24 members of the house to contest the election on the platform of PDP, he also chose who should succeed him,’’ he said.
Earlier in an address of welcome, Chief Stephen Omenka, who spoke on behalf of APGA stakeholders in Abiriba, appealed to Otti to help the community to complete the Abiriba General Hospital, abandoned for about 16 years .
Omenka said that the project, which had a midwifery section and a school of nursing, had been taken over by weeds and reptiles.
Otti inaugurated solar-powered boreholes constructed by APGA’s senatorial candidate in Abia north, Chief David-Ogba Onuoha, (otherwise called Bourdex), at Amogudu, Agborji and Ameke villages in Abiriba.
In a related development, Otti said at a town hall meeting in Ohafia that he would build three new towns in the state, with one in Ohafia.
He said that the initiative would help to check rural-urban migration.
At Nkoro, he assured the community during a town hall meeting, that he would build their road, if elected. End
