Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has said he did not appeal to Alex Otti, his opponent in the April 11 election in the South-East state, to withdraw his petition at the elections tribunal.
Otti was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and had challenged the victory of Ikpeazu at the Elections Petitions Tribunal in the state.
He had in a media report claimed that Ikpeazu sent different emissaries to him for a truce on the matter before the tribunal.
But Ikpeazu said that contrary to the claim, he did not send emissaries to beg him to withdraw petition he filed at the tribunal, stressing that the APGA candidate lied in the claim.
Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, he said that Otti’s claim that he sent emissaries to beg him was meant to create a false impression that he (Ikpeazu ) was in a tight corner.
He challenged the APGA candidate to make public the identities of the emissaries he claimed to have approached him on his behalf.
He urged people of the state not to take Oti serious if he failed to make public the identities of the emissaries purportedly sent to beg him.
According to the governor, tribunals don’t work with sentiment; the tribunal should be allowed to do its work.
He called on the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to call an Umuahia-based radio station to order, saying that the station had been broadcasting prejudicial materials on the tribunal’s proceedings.