Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, on Saturday urged his political opponents to join him in developing the State.
Information Nigeria reports that on Friday, the State’s election tribunal dismissed the petition filed by Okey Ahiwe, March 18 candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the victory of Otti.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Otti, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), as winner of the poll after gathering 175,466 votes to defeat Ahiwe who polled 88,529 votes.
However, in celebration of his tribunal victory, Otti expressed his gratitude to the residents of the State for their unwavering support during and after the election.
While urging his opponents to save themselves the financial burden of appealing the tribunal’s verdict, he advised that they should use the money to help their communities instead.
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“My advice to my opponents is that this is a good time to sheathe their swords and join hands with me to develop our state, Abia.
“Anyhow you slice and dice it, it costs a lot of money to engage in litigation.
“While I will not ask them to bring the money to me, I would advise that each of them have villages that are dilapidating, without roads, without water and I believe that their communities will appreciate it if they would channel those resources into building roads in their villages and communities.
“If you follow the election and everything that happened thereafter, you will know that quite frankly, this victory shouldn’t have been contested in the first place, but then, I also do not deny my opponents their rights to go to court,” he said.
He further thanked the jurists and “all those who ensured that justice prevailed in the end.”
