You can't manipulate Nigerians, Orji cautions APGA, Otti

Former governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji has condemned the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti over what he termed the unending campaign of calumny and propaganda against him.

Orji who reacted to a documentary allegedly sponsored by Otti for the 2015 election, through a statement by the media adviser to the former governor and serving Senator, Don Norman Obinna, condemned Otti and his allies for dragging Orji’s name into “their misadventure.”

Obinna said Orji decided to speak out so that unsuspecting Nigerians would not accept “Otti’s fictitious and contemptible allegation of intimidation and massive rigging in favour of the independent National Electoral commission (INEC)-declared winner, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu” as the truth.

“For the records, Senator Orji who was the then governor of Abia State, was with Chief Olisa Metuh in his residence when he got the inkling of an imminent breakdown of law and order as a result of the announced cancellation of election in Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North Local Government Areas by the INEC returning officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba.

“As the Chief Security Officer of the State, he moved to the INEC office (the scene of the incident) and went straight to the REC, Celina Okoh, not the R.O. Prof. Ozumba to be acquainted with the reason for the cancellation since they were not constitutionally empowered to do so,” he said.

On arrival at the INEC office, according to Obinna, Senator Orji’s conversation and inquiry started and ended with REC Celina Okoh, adding that Orji’s purported meeting to compromise Prof Ozumba only exists in the imagination of peddlers of the appalling rumour projected by the APGA candidate.