We’ll not join APC — Outgoing Abia LGA chairmen

The outgoing local government chairmen of 17 LGAs in Abia State have declared that their loyalty to and support for Governor Alex Otti will be intact even when they leave office.

This is even as the local government bosses, popularly known in Abia as mayors, have dismissed the rumours on social media that they were contemplating joining the All Progressive Congress, APC.

The mayor, who issued a joint statement, said that “there is no iota of truth in these concocted news items.”

Elelenta Nwambusi Elele, the Abia State Chairman of the Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria, said they never held any meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as allegedly peddled in the social media reports and therefore urged the general public to disregard the report as fake.

“To strengthen the records more and again, there was no time mayors were sacked by Chioma ndi Abia, Dr Alex Chioma Otti.

“The authors of these publications have exhibited an utter lack of knowledge of the laws of the land, knowing fully well that His Excellency, Dr Alex Chioma Otti, is a sticker for democratic and legal norms.

“There was never a time any agreement whatsoever was brokered to railroad them into elected Chairmen. It is therefore fallacious to simulate deceit for a process that has successfully met the provisions of extant laws of Abia State,” they said.

The mayors, who thanked the Abia Governor for the opportunity given to them to serve in his administration, reiterated their “unalloyed support to him in the delivery of the Abia Project.”

Also speaking on the matter, the Mayor of Umunnochi LGA, Ndubuisi Ike, said the outgoing council bosses are already planning a smooth transition.