OTTI PROMISES TO RELOCATE HEADQUARTERS OF ASOPADEC TO UKWA WEST
By Kazie Uko
Governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has promised to relocate the headquarters of the Abia State Oil Producing Areas Commission (ASOPADEC) to Ukwa West, when he gets into office in 2023.
Otti, who was in Ukwa West on Thursday in continuation of his local government campaign for the 2023 governorship election, said there was no reason to have sited the head office of the commission in Umuahia in the first place.
“Ukwa West is the chicken that lays the golden egg. It is because of Ukwa West that Abia State is part of the oil producing states in Nigeria,” Otti said, drawing huge applause from the natives at a town hall meeting with leaders, elders, women, youth and other stakeholders.
The LP candidate, favoured to win the 2023 election, also told the milling crowd, most of who had gathered much earlier in the day to catch a glimpse of him, that he would resuscitate the Golden Chicken at Ogwe, to further create employment for the people of Ukwa.
He reiterated his stand that his mission to government house in Abia is to create wealth, jobs and eliminate poverty in Abia State.
Otti told civil servants and pensioners in the community, who had been owed arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state, to weep no more, saying help is on the way.
He promised to pay off all the outstanding salaries, pensions and gratuities, some of which have run into several years, within six months of his assuming office as the governor of Abia State.
Community leaders, who spoke at the various points the LP governorship candidate stopped, lamented over the lack of basic infrastructure in their community despite the fact that the state government has collected several billions of Naira as oil producing state on account of the oil exploited in their domain. They pleaded with Otti to ensure that he reverses the trend when he becomes governor in 2023.
They said the Ukwa West community had always voted the amiable top banker and renowned economist, whether in 2015 or 2019, when he earlier contested for the governorship but their votes were stolen.
They however believed that this time around, with the new Electoral Act 2022, their votes will definitely count, promising to vote him and all the other Labour Party candidates contesting at various levels, including the presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, in 2023.
