Otti refuses to disclose choice between Tinubu, Obi, says ‘it must be somebody that will win’

Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has declined to disclose whether he would vote for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu or former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, in the 2027 presidential election.

Otti made his position known during an interview with ARISENews presenter, Ojy Okpe, while responding to a direct question on which of the two politicians he would support if he had to choose between them.

Okpe asked the governor: “If push comes to shove, and you were to support one candidate, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Peter Obi, who will Governor Alex Otti vote for?”

Otti declined to name his preferred candidate, saying the question was becoming personal.

He said: “We’ll come back to this question. I thought we had finished it. Yeah. You are now getting into personal issues, because you are asking who will Alex Otti vote for.”

The governor added that he would keep his choice private but gave an indication of what he would consider when making his decision.

“I would not be speaking about who I would vote for here with you. But then it must be somebody that will win. I reserve the right to keep to myself,” Otti said.

The statement comes amid growing political calculations ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Otti’s position is particularly significant because he remains a prominent Labour Party figure. He won the 2023 Abia governorship election on the Labour Party platform, while Obi, who was the party’s presidential candidate in the same election, has since left the party and joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

In recent months, Otti has repeatedly distinguished between his working relationship with President Tinubu and his personal political choice for the 2027 presidential election.

In another part of the ARISE News interview, Otti said he was not in a position to oppose Tinubu’s candidacy because of his role as a governor and member of the National Economic Council.

“I am not in a position to oppose his candidacy,” Otti said, explaining that openly opposing the President while being part of the government could create divisions.

He, however, maintained that acknowledging Tinubu’s right to contest does not automatically mean that Tinubu is his preferred candidate for the 2027 presidential election. Punch also reported that Otti said he had a presidential candidate but rejected the suggestion that Tinubu was the candidate he was referring to.

The governor’s latest comments also come shortly after renewed speculation over his relationship with Tinubu and his position on the 2027 election.

In September, former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, claimed that Otti was supporting Tinubu’s re-election bid. However, the Abia State Government stopped short of confirming the claim, saying Otti’s relationship with Tinubu was “very cordial” but that any formal declaration on the 2027 presidential election would have to come from the governor himself.

Otti has also previously said that the Labour Party was not part of the opposition coalition seeking to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027. In February, he said the Labour Party was “already a coalition” of Nigerian workers and progressive-minded people and stated that the party had no plan to join another coalition. He also expressed regret over Obi’s departure from the Labour Party while wishing him well.

For now, Otti has therefore kept his personal voting preference between Tinubu and Obi undisclosed, while making clear that whoever eventually earns his support must, in his words, “be somebody that will win.”