Alex Otti is an economist, ex-banker, investor, philanthropist, and politician. Otti is currently the Governor-elect of Abia State in Nigeria.
Otti, who is the Labour Party (LP) candidate in Abia State, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after a dramatic collation of results for the state's governorship election held on Saturday, March 18.
Otti emerged as the winner after defeating his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
According to the Returning Officer, Professor Nnenna Oti, the Labour Party candidate scored a total of 175,467 votes to beat his main challenger, Ahiwe of PDP, who garnered a total of 88,529 votes.
Below are five things to know about the governor-elect of Abia State, Alex Otti:
1) Alex Ottti was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Isiala-Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia state to the family of the late Mr. & Mrs. Lazarus Weze Otti. His father was pastor.
2) Otti attended the Ngwa High School and Secondary Technical School, Okpuala Ngwa in Abia State.
He graduated with a first-class degree in Economics from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
He also got an MBA degree from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Otti took some international courses in institutions like Columbia Business School, Stanford Business School, and Wharton Business School.
3) He started his banking career in 1989 with the Nigeria International Bank, then moved to Nigerian Intercontinental Merchant Bank Ltd. In 1992, he joined Societe Bancaire Nigeria Limited (Merchant bankers) before moving to the United Bank of Africa (UBA) as the principal manager overseeing the bank's corporate banking sector for the entire south division.
In 2001, he joined First Bank of Nigeria as Assistant General Manager and was later appointed as executive director, of commercial banking. In 2011, he moved from First Bank Nigeria to Diamond bank as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.
He retired from the banking sector in 2014.
4) He was a gubernatorial candidate of Abia State under the All Progressive's Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2015. Otti was declared the winner of the election after the Court of Appeal removed Okezie Ikpeazu of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). But the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.
5) The governor-elect of Abia is a member of the Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspaper. He is also a columnist. Under the title, “Outside The Box”, Otti writes on a wide range of issues.
