Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has issued a blistering warning to those he said were plotting to manipulate the 2027 governorship contest, telling a perceived target - Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, without mentioning any names - that anyone who plans to rig the election should “write [their] will first.”
Speaking during the October edition of the state's monthly media chat, Otti urged politicians to respect electoral laws and await the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) timetable before campaigning. “We must respect the law. If INEC releases the timetable and say this is the time that campaigns start, if you start campaign before then, you put yourself in harm’s way. You can even be disqualified before the election,” he said.
The governor was apparently responding to public campaigning by Kalu and others from the All Progressives Congress (APC), who have declared their intention to wrest the state from the Labour Party in 2027. Otti warned that pre-timed campaigning and threats of result manipulation were unacceptable.
“When you gather people and you are shouting that you are going to take over the state in 2027, you are campaigning and it is not right,” he said. “I will tell him that if he wants to run for an election he should wait so that once INEC blows the whistle, he should go and pick up a form and begin to campaign. It is for Abia people to decide who will be their governor. So I call on our people to still hold their peace and be calm.”
Otti addressed allegations that some political actors had been advised they could “write results,” issuing a stark challenge: “The only advice I have for them is that if they truly want to write results, they should write something else before. You know what it is? Their will? Because this is our state, and nobody can intimidate us.”
He reiterated the need for calm and lawful conduct ahead of the 2027 polls, stressing that flouting INEC rules could lead to disqualification and other legal consequences.
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