Abia rerun: My expectation from supreme court- Otti.

Recently, the Court of Appeal sitting in
Owerri, Imo State declared Dr Alex Otti of
the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA),
the winner of the April 2015 governorship
election in Abia State. However, Governor
Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) who was declared winner by
the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC filed the case at the
Supreme Court. In this interview, he speaks
on various issues including his expectations
from the Supreme Court and blueprint for
governing Imo State. Excerpts:
Your victory at the Court of Appeal has
been trailed by mixed reactions from
lawyers; now that the case has been
further taken to the Supreme Court,
what are your expectations?
The Appeal Court judgment was greeted
with wide jubilation in the length and
breadth of Abia State. I was in Abia and
there was tumultuous celebration. It is
understood why there would be that kind of
celebration. Abia State indigenes and those
who live in Abia voted for me. I have
received a lot of text messages, E-mails and
one thing that underscored those text
messages particularly from Abia people
was ‘we know who we voted for’. Everybody
knows that I won that election. So, people
were very happy with the verdict. But as an
afterthought, 48 hours later, the
government of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) first held a meeting and
decided that they were going to protest the
judgment. There was no less a person to
lead the protest that the former Senate
President, Adolphus Wabara. The only thing
I want to say is that senior citizens should
live in a way that people should like to
emulate them. But understandably,
Wabara has no job and has not been doing
anything in the last couple of years.
Understandably, he was protesting to
ensure that he secured his source of
livelihood. It was an arranged protest. You
may have also watched a few lawyers that
have been recruited to dominate the
airwaves. But the people that cast their
votes know who they voted for. I can tell
you without fear of contradiction that Abia
people voted for me and they are waiting
for a time that I will take over the
leadership of the state and begin to
develop the state as I promised them. I do
not see that the Supreme Court would not
uphold the decision of the Court of Appeal
because it was a well grounded judgment
that they gave. The major issues are very
clear. If you go by the registered voters,
there are about 1.3 million of them in Abia
State in 17 local governments. The PDP
knew they were not going to win that
election.
All they did was to isolate three local
governments that they used to perpetrate
fraud, Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa
North. On the day of the election, they
removed the original result sheets for ward
and local government collation for the
three local governments. We have this on
good authority. All what they did was that
on the day of the election, they ensured
that there was maximum violence in those
three local governments. They would come
to the polling unit, shoot in the air, people
would run away and they would carry all
the materials and take off and wait for the
collation to start. In the 14th local
government, I was leading with about
60,500 and they quickly filled those original
result sheets and forced them into the
collation centres. That was what happened.
When you say that there is going to be an
election, it is for people to exercise their
will and when you do not win an election,
the best thing to do is to concede to the
man that won. Having done all what they
did and declared the result, what did I do? I
went to court which was the right thing to
do and the judges at the tribunal
misunderstood the case and gave a
judgment in their favour. We did not call
people to the streets. We have more
people than the PDP in Abia State. Eighty
percent of the people in Abia State are with
us, forget all the things that we hear.
People wanted to protest and I said no,
nobody should protest.
There is this allegation that the
composition of the judges of the Court
of Appeal that delivered the judgment
in your favour was wrong. The
allegation is that all the judges were of
Lagos division and that you, being
more or less a Lagos person could have
benefitted from the composition. What
is your take on that?
I saw a petition that they wrote which came
barely 24 hours before the panel sat. Quite
frankly, I do not know what to react on your
question. I do not know how panels are set
up. But I understand it is the President of
the Court of Appeal that sets up such
panels. The reality is that the Court of
Appeal is Court of Appeal. If you followed a
case that Nyesom Wike filed that went up
to the Supreme Court, I believe when that
case was decided, the Supreme Court said
the Court of Appeal was Court of Appeal in
spite of where you sit. If they decided to sit
in Abuja, Port Harcourt or anywhere, the
prerogative is that of the Court of Appeal.
My reaction would be that the PDP
unfortunately is not in a position to
determine the membership of the panel,
neither am I in a position to do that. They
know that the mandate they are exercising,
they stole it. They found that they may not
be able to do the wrong thing with the
panel and that is why they started doing all
sorts of things.
Many argue that this is not the best
time to be a governor in Nigeria
considering the downturn in the
nation’s economy. What is driving your
enthusiasm? Do you know the enormity
of the challenges in the position you
are aspiring for?
This is the time for uncommon people to
come into government; people who have
things to deliver. It is not going to be a tea
party and I know that and I have come to
face the challenges. I was reading an article
and somebody said he was supporting me
because I can read a balance sheet. It is
true. People who cannot read a balance
sheet should not aspire to lead a state or
even any position of leadership because
this is a challenging time. This is a time for
creative people, people who have
something to offer; people who have skills
and know what to do without necessarily
going to Abuja with cap in hand for the
federal allocation. This is the time for
people like us to come in. I am aware of
the enormous challenges; I did a study with
the consultant that I hired on Abia State.
When the result came out, I was shocked
with the level of rot, infrastructural decay
and lack of direction. Aba is finished,
Umuahia is a glorified village. This is the
time for people who have something to
offer to come in. If you know a little bit
about me, you will know that I thrive in
circumstances like this. I am blessed to
create something out of nothing.
Abia was known sometime for
kidnapping; could you let us in into
your blueprint on how to provide
security and power in your state?
A lot of companies relocated because they
could not operate because of insecurity.
Tackling the problem of insecurity has to be
done from the roots. A lot of people who
get into criminal activities could be
reoriented particularly if they have skills
and things to channel their energy and
most importantly, if you have jobs for them.
So, job creation is key to eradicating
insecurity. And unfortunately, it is a vicious
circle. By the time you have insecurity, it
leads to more insecurity. Because of
insecurity, a lot of the companies would
relocate and unemployment becomes the
order of the day which now gives rise to a
reserved army that could be used to
reinforce insecurity. You need to break that
chain at some point. What we need to do
first is to ensure that people get something
they are able to do. That population that
you have taken off the streets and given a
source of livelihood would not be available
for crime and criminality. The second thing
is also to ensure that government goes into
programmes including agriculture, micro
and medium scale enterprises and all those
kinds of things that would help get people
self employed. Of course, there is little
percentage of people who are criminals by
their nature and you now deploy the power
of the state to fight them. It has been done
elsewhere.

Abacha Loots: More Billions Coming Back To Nigeria.

The Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, during an interactive
session with the House of Reps Committee on
Justice, revealed that the Nigerian government
will repatriate more of the infamous loot held
in foreign accounts by the late General Sani
Abacha.
The amount to be received, the minister
revealed, is $750 million (approximately
N150bn). Another N2bn stolen by convicted
criminal, ex-Gov of Delta State, James Ibori, is
expected to be returned too.
The minister stated that: “In respect of the
recovery of looted assets, the ministry will
engage in an agreement waive policy of using
mutual legal assistance agreements or other
bilateral and multilateral instruments to seek
cooperation with other jurisdictions to ensure
the repatriation of illicitly-acquired assets in
foreign jurisdictions.
“The collaboration will equally involve the
engagement if foreign based counsel will
attend to matters on behalf of the federal
government. Low- hanging fruits being targeted
in this initiative include $750 million Abacha
loot as well as the £6.9 million of the Ibori loot.
“In the long run, the ministry will be in a
position to coordinate the recovery of billions of
dollars in foreign jurisdictions, based on current
estimations.” I hope the government will make good use of the money.