The governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr Alex Otti, has assured the people of the state that he would do everything possible to reclaim the mandate they freely gave to him during the governorship contest in the state, insisting that the battle has just begun.

Otti, in his first official reaction to the declaration of the PDP candidate, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, as winner of the Abia governorship election, maintained that Abia people voted for him but the ruling party stole his mandate.

The Abia governorship election was decided yesterday after a supplementary poll with the Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, returning Ikpeazu who had 264,713 votes as the winner. Otti came second with 180,882 votes.

The APGA candidate has therefore sworn to proceed to the Election Petitions Tribunal to reclaim his mandate.

Otti, at a news briefing in his Umuahia campaign headquarters, said he was aware that people were sad about the outcome of the governorship polls in Abia but charged all to keep the peace.

“I know that a lot of my compatriots in Abia State are angry. If you go round the state today, it is like a dark cloud covering the whole state. There may be pockets of rejoicing but 90 per cent of Abians are mourning.

“They are mourning not because somebody died, they are mourning because their will has been truncated, they are mourning because the mandate that they have freely given seems to have been stolen. But I will like to use this opportunity to call on our people to mourn no more because my Bible tells me that weeping may endure for a nigh but joy commeth in the morning,” he said.

Otti added: “We will not resort to brigandage, we will not resort to thuggery; we will not do the wrong thing because we do not believe that two wrongs make a right. So, I am calling on our people to remain calm and steadfast. People should ensure that they maintain the peace.

“The election has come but it is not gone. The battle has just started. I can assure our people that I will stop at nothing in ensuring that the mandate that they have freely given, not to me as an individual, but to me as a change agent, that mandate will never be stolen. Evil can never triumph over good and if it seems to be triumphing, it is only momentary because good must prevail.

“So, we are going to challenge this charade at the tribunal and we are very confident that with the wind of change in the entire country, that change would not be obstructed in Abia State. I will encourage you (Abians) to remain prayerful because with God, all things are possible. We are going to be victorious and our people will be liberated.”

•Photo shows Otti

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