One of Nigeria’s foremost human rights lawyers, Barrister Monday Onyekachi Ubani, has extolled the virtues of the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, describing him as a movement in the mould of Peter Obi.

Ubani, a former chairman of the powerful Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch, Lagos, says Abia people are yearning for Otti to emerge the governor of the state in the governorship election now scheduled for Saturday, March 18.

He spoke Wednesday in Awomukwu in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia, his home state, where the various communities in the LGA gathered to endorse Dr. Otti and adopt him as their preferred candidate for the governorship election.

“You have become a movement just like Peter Obi. Dr. Alex Otti has become a movement in Abia State. We love you, we cherish you, we know your character, we know your antecedents, we know your capacity, we know your capability, you will take us to the Promised Land.

“We welcome you Dr. Alex Otti, the next governor of Abia State. Heaven has approved it, the earth has concurred, Ikwuano has put their hands, the other local governments are saying that this is the next governor of Abia State. And so, as heaven has pronounced, the earth has agreed that come May 29, we will have an incumbent governor in the person of Dr. Alex Otti, it is settled,” Dr. Ubani declared at the event while welcoming Otti and his entourage, including the LP State Constituency candidate for Ikwuano, Hon Boniface Isienyi.

A release from Otti’s Media Aide, Kazie Uko, quoted Ubani as telling Otti that in the March 18 Governorship election, “Ikwuano people decided to put all their eggs in LP basket because their 22 years of loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) only yielded disappointment and dashed expectations.

He said: “If there is any local government that is disadvantaged, the most neglected, it is Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. For 22 years, they have been faithful to one political party, PDP, and for 22 years that particular hope has been dashed. But thank God there is a man in the person of Dr. Alex Otti, who God has prepared for this opportune time to come and take Abia to its former position, God’s Own State, the first alphabetically but always the least in terms of development.

“And we say never again, never again shall Abia have a governor that will spend four years without achieving anything for the state. We cannot be waiting for four years and they will come and give us a cup of rice, give us small money because they know that they have made us poor, and we take that N1000, N3000, N5000 to go and vote for them. Say, never again, never again, because our eyes are open. Your eyes are open, my eyes are open.

“We are not interested in visitation only after four years. We want a governor, and that is the man that is here. From day one, he will remember every local government in Abia State. He will remember every Abian. He will bring infrastructure to Abia. He will make our state capital to look like state capital. He will turn Aba to Dubai of Nigeria.

“Dr. Alex Otti will give our children employment. Dr. Alex Otti will fix our schools. Dr. Alex will give us roads. There is no single road in Ikwuano. There has been no government in Abia that has given us up to five-kilometre Road in Ikwuano.

“So, we have made up our minds sir; Ikwuano has made up its mind that come the election day, we will support you massively with our votes. The young ones are with you, the women are with you, the men are with you. As I speak, I rely upon the power of the Almighty God that, Dr. Alex, Ikwuano will vote for you. And as I’m hearing from all other local governments, they’re all in support of your ambition in order to salvage Abia State and change the narratives of Abia State for better and Abia shall rejoice again.”

Addressing the large crowd of excited locals and their leaders, Otti restated his earlier promises to use Abia money to work for Abia people, insisting that he would not go the way of the incumbent and his predecessors, where monies meant for the development of the state are shared among a few people in the corridors of power, leaving the state to decay.

“Just like I said earlier, we will use government money for the people because the government belongs to the people. We will support your businesses. We will bring back all the moribund industries in the state and establish new ones to create wealth and jobs for our people. We will pay off all outstanding salary and pension arrears owed civil servants and retirees before the end of December this year.

“Those who have embarked on a propaganda war against me are doing so because they know that I will not share government money to a few elites. They know that I will use government money to work for the people and lift them out of poverty. They know that I will build roads and provide all the other basic infrastructural needs of the people in order to develop our state.

“People who know me know that my word is my bond. We will develop Ikwuano, and we will develop Abia State,” Otti espoused, while thanking the people of Ikwuano for voting massively for the LP presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and the party’s National Assembly candidates in the February 25 elections.

The LP standard bearer in Abia, who received some decamping former Executive Committee members of PDP and YPP in the state, appealed to the people to come out in even larger number to vote for him as governor and Hon Isienyi for the  state assembly election on March 18.