Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has dismissed allegations that he has been sponsoring the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-east with the state funds.
IPOB, a group seeking to carve out a sovereign state of Biafra from South-east and some parts of the South-South of Nigeria, has been linked to deadly attacks in the two regions.
Mr Otti also refuted claims that he was sponsoring the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s election litigation.
The governor, in a statement on Tuesday by his media aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma, said his political opponents who lost in the 2023 elections were behind the allegations.
He said the opponents have called for the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abia State to be relocated outside the state ahead of its judgment billed to be delivered on 6 October.
The governor said those behind the call claimed his administration had concluded plans to intimidate the judges to deliver judgement in his favour.
Mr Otti is a member of the LP under which he won the governorship election in March.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Okey Ahiwe, and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Ikechi Emenike are separately challenging the victory at the tribunal.
Similarly, Mr Obi has been challenging the election of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, last month, dismissed Mr Obi’s petition against Mr Tinubu for lack of merit.
But the former governor of Anambra State filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.
No truth
Mr Otti, in the statement, denied the allegations against him.
“There is no iota of truth in the allegation that Governor Alex Otti is sponsoring Mr Peter Obi’s litigation; and definitely not sponsoring the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to cause any act of terror in the state as alleged,” the statement read in part.
The governor explained that he decided to respond to the allegations because “they are weighty and have the propensity to cause disaffection, insecurity, breakdown of law and order, and even endanger the lives and property of innocent citizens.”
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He called on President Tinubu and Nigeria’s security agencies to invite those behind the allegations and investigate their claims.
Mr Otti said it was “demeaning insult and a provocative blackmail for a group of greedy hatchet men with zero stake in the Abia project to sit behind the microphone and spew gibberish that lowers the office of the Governor of Abia State”.
The governor claimed that the two opposition political parties challenging his governorship election at the tribunal resorted to the allegations because they knew their petition would be thrown out by the election court.
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