I won’t stop opposition members from joining Labour Party, says Otti

• Otti said a political party is akin to a church organisation where one cannot stop people who have come to worship from entering.

Abia State governor, Alex Otti, says the door of Labour Party is open to any opposition members who want to join the party.

Speaking during a monthly media chat tagged “Governor Otti speaks to Abians”, the governor noted that a political party is akin to a church organisation where one cannot stop people who have come to worship from entering.

He, however, stated that the good governance prevailing in the state under his leadership “would not be torpedoed by the entrance of people from the opposition political parties into the Labour Party.

Otti expressed delight that his administration has defrayed all arrears of pensions that dated back to 2014 , involving about 12,500 pensioners, he said that by so doing, over N9b has been injected into the state economy, vowing to ensure regular payment of pensions.

“The economy works with money. If you are in Abia, you will see that those pensioners who would have been begging N500 to N1000 to eat are able to feed themselves today and you recognize the fact that when they spend this money , they spend it in the state.

“So, if you understand the multiplier effect of money ,if you understand that supply can only happen when there is demand and effective demand and that demand is backed up by cash, then you would have understood what we have done. We have returned power to those that own it and that is the people, and I am happy that our pensioners, close to 12,500 of them have been paid.”