Abia Govt Describes Otti’s Claim of Threat to Life a Hoax

Abia Govt Describes Otti’s Claim of Threat to Life a Hoax

Abia state has faulted the claims made Dr Alex Otti concerning a threat to his life, saying it was hoax.

The former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had alleged at a press conference last Friday inUmuahia that his private guest house at Maitama area of Abuja was invaded by unknown gunmen. He said that though he had leftAbuja 24 hours before the invaders came, a policeman on guard duty was shot dead.
But the claims made by Otti were debunked by Abia government in a statement made available to journalists in Umuahia at the weekend by the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia  governor, Mr. Godwin Adindu.
He said that enquiries at the Force Headquarters, Abuja has revealed that neither was Otti's guest house invaded by gunmen nor was the policeman of the Special Protection Unit (SPU) killed at the said guest house.
He contradicted Otti, saying that the politician was "merely trying to whip up sentiments to attract the sympathy of the  security agencies and the electoral tribunal to his disastrous petition".
“I have spoken with the Force PRO, Mr. Emma Ojukwu and he confirmed to me that there was an attack in the Maitama area of Otti’sprivate guest house, but that the attack was not exactly at his residence and that the policeman killed was not killed in his residence,”said the government spokesman.
Adindu disclosed that the FPPRO also confirmed that some houses were attacked but not  the guest house  of Otti, adding  that the APGA guber candidate was not even around at the time of the incident.
He stated that the Force PPRO was "firm that the attack was not targeted at Otti and was not targeted at his guest house".
According to him, the Force spokesman had  further disclosed that the policeman was killed in the building housing NESTOIL, which is a totally different compound from where Otti’s guest house is located.
Describing Otti’s claim as "lamentations of a drowning man" the CPS noted that it was part of his grand plan to influence the tribunal through “emotional pressure” to move the sittings to Abuja.
He said that all the clandestine moves of the former bank boss were already well known to the PDP in Abia and would be thoroughly checkmated.
Adindu pointed out that Abia has been relatively peaceful and that there has been no threat to security to warrant any contemplation of relocating the tribunal, "which is the grand plan or Mr. Otti".
He accused the APGA guber candidate of indulging in "diversionary tactics to whip up sentiments and move  attention away from the main issues at  the tribunal (having)  seen the handwriting on the wall, that his petition is irredeemably disastrous”.