Alex Otti: Governors Who Criticise Predecessors Are ‘Lady Leaders’ – Okezie Ikpeazu Fires

The immediate past governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, has criticized elected governors who openly criticize their predecessors after assuming office.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday during a keynote lecture titled Showcasing Africa’s Developmental Capacities in the Current Multi-polar Realities, Ikpeazu described such governors as “lady leaders,” arguing that they fail to recognize the positive achievements of their predecessors and instead focus solely on criticism.

He stated, “Anybody who comes to leadership and starts by saying that everything that his predecessor is doing is bad is a lady leader because you must be able to see what is good and build on it if you have come in the interest of the people.”

Ikpeazu, who governed Abia from 2015 to 2023 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been involved in a bitter dispute with his successor, Alex Otti. Since the handover of power in 2023, the two have exchanged sharp recriminations.

Last year, Otti accused Ikpeazu of withdrawing ₦1.9 trillion from the state government’s treasury during his tenure. To investigate the allegations, Governor Otti hired a private auditing firm, KPMG International Nigeria Limited, to audit the state’s finances for the eight years of Ikpeazu’s administration.