The war of words between Abia State Governor Dr Koezie
Ikpeazu and his arch rival at the last gubernatorial election Dr Alex Otti is
getting messier by the day with accusations and counter accusations from both
camps.
Here are their latest Media responses.
Alex Otti's mission of vengeance against Abia over
electoral defeat has failed
After reviewing another press statement by the 2015
defeated Governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in
Abia State, Mr Alex Otti, titled "ikpeazu, I will not join you in the
mud" it is now clear to us that the perpetual sore loser is apparently on
a vengeance mission against common Abians for his electoral defeat in 2015..
While most citizens of Abia state celebrated the approval
of the $200m AfDB facility for infrastructure development in the state, we were
recently informed of the nocturnal activities of Mr Otti who visited officials
of the federal ministry of finance and some members of the National Assembly
committees that approved the facility with satanic offers to reverse the
approval and deny innocent citizens of the state the opportunity to witness and
benefit from first class infrastructural projects.
Though Otti's offers and malicious requests were
thankfully rejected by the concerned persons, it is instructive to note that of all the 10 states that sought
National Assembly approval to borrow from international finance institutions,
only the Abia approval is under any form of contention. To our dismay, Otti is
still on the agenda of undermining the development of the state in pursuit of
his inordinate ambition to rule the state against the people's collective will.
Those who are familiar with our recent political history
will not doubt that the malicious shenanigans align with the character called
Alex Otti, who even to date is still at the Supreme Court interloping and
meddling with judicial processes that ordinarily have nothing to do him, after
failing in his attempts to distract our administration with long drawn out and
ill advised litigations that should have ended with the Supreme Court
dismissing his petition on the 3rd of February 2016.
It is now clear to all unbiased observers that of all
aspirants who lost the 2015 Governorship election in Abia state, Mr Otti is the
most bitter and unpatriotic. He is determined to ensure that we not only fail
to deliver dividends of democracy to our people, but also punish the people for
daring to vote against him.
Otti's latest press release confirmed that he either has
comprehension problems or is intrinsically challenged with capacity to seek
information through verifiable sources.
Ordinarily, we would have decided to ignore his latest
rants. However, bearing in mind the illusory truth effect founded on the idea
that if you repeat something often enough, people will slowly start to believe
it’s true, we have decided to comprehensively respond with verifiable facts.
After all Euripedes warned that "when one with honeyed words but evil mind
persuades the mob, great woes befall the state."
1. Apparently Mr Otti could not deny the fact that he
lied to our people during the campaigns that he sourced for and obtained $100b
IFC loan, as a private citizen, that he will deploy from his "first day at
work".
2. It is also instructive that he has dropped and/or
could not substantiate his false claims of our borrowing N30b from an unnamed
commercial bank. Instead he has revised his conjectures to another non existent
N10b loan from "an old generation commercial bank" whose name remains
in his personal make belief universe.
For the avoidance of doubt, Abia State Government, under
the watch of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, did not borrow N10b from any old or new
generation commercial bank.
3. Interestingly, Mr Otti hid under statutory corporate
regulation to reject our call for a review of his stewardship at Diamond and
First Banks, whereas he conveniently forgot that state governments are
statutorily subjected to regulation and review by other organs of government
such as the State House of Assembly and other agencies. Why didn't he wait for
those organs or independent agencies to carry out oversight on the government
rather than run off with dangerous misinformation and actions?
Yet, we insist that Otti's records at First Bank and
Diamond Bank do not cover him in glory, as he will want the world to believe.
We have facts and figures with regards to his activities at the public sector
unit and corporate banking departments of both institutions and wish to further
challenge him to explain to the public why almost all the staff that worked
with him in corporate and public sector banking team at Diamond Bank, including
those he brought from First Bank, were sacked the week after he was forced out.
Given that he has chosen to hide under corporate
regulations it might no longer be necessary to ask him to shed light on the
failed attempt at stealing Diamond Bank from the Chairman, Chief Paschal Dozie
and his family.
Indeed if Otti continues to insist that he served well at
Diamond Bank and First Bank, may be we can wait for those institutions to issue
statements in his defense as proof of his supposed excellent performance. But
we strongly suspect that neither Diamond Bank nor First Bank will issue any
such statement given that they are still battling to come out of the
devastation associated with his supposed excellent services.
One thing is certain though, previous claims of
compliance with regulatory requirements didn't save well known former bankers
from going to jail in the past and the earlier Mr Otti braces up for any
inevitability the better.
4. Available records at the Debt Management Office (DMO)
of the Presidency confirm that as at 2015 Abia State was among the least
exposed states with a total loan portfolio of about N6b. Whereas some of our
neighboring states recorded more than N35b exposure but still benefitted from
the bailout funds. Otti only need to verify this fact from that office, if he
was not on a mission of dangerous misinformation aimed at punishing our
citizens for rejecting him at the polls.
5. It bears restating that the initial MOU for the $200m
AfDB facility was signed in 2014, before the emergence of the current
administration, following stringent reviews and meetings that involved then
Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a renowned economist who headed the
World Bank for many years. Our administration pursued the realization of the
facility because we are in a hurry to develop our state by providing and
renewing necessary infrastructure that will drive accelerated development and
make life better for our citizens.
The past and current efforts of the state in pursuit of
the facility were well reported in the media, including the review visits by
teams from AfDB, Federal Ministries of Works and Finance respectively. At all
material time, the discussion and subsequent memorandum of understanding (MOU)
was centered on a facility of $200m for integrated development projects as
against rural access mobility projects (RAMP).
6. When the Presidency transmitted the National borrowing
plan letter to the National Assembly that included the request for approval of
the AfDB facility, we observed errors in the reported amount, source of the
loan and associated project. As a responsible government, we engaged the
relevant federal institutions to correct the mistakes and after due reviews,
the Federal Ministry of Finance wrote the National Assembly and copied the
Presidency via letter with reference number F11373/S.34/C.1609/75 of
18th July, 2017 to correct the observed mistakes. It was
simply on the basis of the referenced letter that the National Assembly
approved the $200m AfDB facility for Abia State Integrated Infrastructure
Development Project (ASIIDP) from African Development Bank.
In fact we have it on good authority that one of the
officers Mr Otti visited to seek the cancellation of the facility showed him a
copy of the letter.
Yet, he chose the path of dangerous misinformation in
order to punish Abians for voting against him.
7. It is laughable that Mr Otti is asking about approval
of the $200m facility by the Abia State House of Assembly at this time. While
the leadership of the house was at all times fully appraised of our efforts at
obtaining approval for the facility, it is elementary to expect that since it
is actually the Federal Government that is borrowing on our behalf the National
Assembly should approve the facility first. The state legislature has long been
formerly notified of the approval of the facility by the National Assembly and
are expected to do the needful on resumption from their annual vacation. If
indeed Otti was in contact with members of his party at the house, as against
abandoning them immediately his desperate quest to govern Abia was dealt a
death blow by the Supreme Court, he would have known all these.
8. It is a well known fact that Otti is one of the
helicopter politicians who only come down during elections to dish out lies and
misinformation to voters. If he had been on the ground or even still have the
phone numbers of his party's ward chairmen, he could easily have verified the
roads we worked on at Aba and other locations in the state. We wish to advise
that he makes the call today or come down to the state and verify all the
following listed projects executed by our administration in the last 2 years.
Interestingly, Mr Otti even failed to acknowledge the
ongoing road construction work along the Umunkpei-Amaiyi Road that passed
through his claimed paternal village of Umuehim in Isiala Ngwa South local
government area. More than 4km of that road has been asphalted and commissioned
for use to ease the sufferings of our people.
9. Some of our
ongoing and completed projects at Aba and other locations in the state are
stated below for verification by Otti at any time he chooses to come down from
the helicopter.
In agriculture, the state has launched large scale
mushroom production and training program that is already yielding great
results.
Our administration is actively supporting rice farmers to
further boost production, and put 'Abia Rice' in the market as soon as
possible.
We have a massive Palm plantation with over 4,000,000
tenera specie seedlings grown and sold across the state.
Abia state government is funding commercial agriculture through grants and
soft loans to farmers.
We have provided mechanized farming equipment across the
state through leasing at affordable rates that is less than 50% of the previous
cost.
Commercial production of cocoa and cashew have been
boosted through deliberate investment by the government. Our objective is to
ultimately establish processing plants for the primary products to further
enhance benefits within the value chain for the cash crops.
We are directly providing fertilizers to farmers at
subsidized rates alongside extension services.
Our administration embarked on enhanced poultry and fish
production with phase 1 of 100 poultry pens of 2000 birds executed. In the coming months we will replicate the
facility across the 3 geopolitical zones.
This administration constructed a 165,000 birds capacity
poultry processing plant at Umuosu in Abia central senatorial zone. Additional
two units for Abia North and South are currently under construction.
Following our provision of counterpart funding for FADAMA
III projects, 300 young Abia farmers will benefit from N2.5m per person grant
as part of the Farmpreneur project of the world bank (FADAMA).
Also in partnership with the world bank, we have commenced
reactivation of the moribund Igu Dam to
ensure all year round rice production in the state.
As part of our capacity building agenda, we launched the
Education for Employment (E4E) scheme that has already produced 472 graduates
with relevant skills in ICT, at Phase 1. Phase 2 of the program which is aimed
at training 36,000 unemployed Abians in different skills will commence in
September. For the first time in our state, a database of unemployed Abians has
been compiled and we are taking verifiable actions to provide them with jobs
using our recently launched Abia state job portal.
To further enhance the capacity and productivity of Abia
teachers, we are partnering with Australian education providers to retrain them
and enhance teaching efficiency. More than 800 teachers have benefited from
this program.
Under our watch, Abia State has maintained 1st position
in WAEC and NECO examinations for consecutive 2 years as a result of increased
monitoring and enhancement of private and public sector educational resources.
To motivate our teachers for better performance in our
schools, we donated cars to best performing teachers from the 3 zones and also
built staff quarters at Umuahia Township Stadium.
In consideration of the current socio-economic situation
in the country, we reduced tuition fees at ABSU, Abiapoly and College of
Education Arochukwu to support Abia parents and guardians.
Our homegrown free school feeding program was launched and currently ongoing across the
state.
Also our administration partnered with the private sector
to provide free Made in Aba school sandals to over 2000 school children in the
state. More will benefit from this program which also supports our Made in Aba
promotion agenda.
In order to boost ICT education and stimulate interest in
that area in our children from early age, we launched Free ICT and Coding
training for primary and secondary schools in the state using the e-library at
Umuahia as hub.
For the first time in our state, we launched and deployed
a unified education platform for all schools in the state. Results and
activities of all Abia school children can be monitored from one platform for
private and public schools.
In fulfillment of our electoral promises, we have
commenced the construction of model
schools with nursery, primary and secondary schools in one place alongside
dormitory, sports facilities and teachers quarters. This we are able to execute
because we paid our UBE counterpart fund of N2.8b.
To support regular monitoring of schools in rural and
urban areas of the state we launched a new statewide education inspectors
scheme and provided 42 motorcycles to enhance efficiency.
Our administration has reconstituted the state
scholarship board and awarded tertiary education scholarships to best
performing WASCE students in all the LGAs for 2 years.
In the area of infrastructure development and renewal,
caterpillars and other construction equipment have been active across our
state.
A. The Ultra modern Abia Investment House was constructed
and commissioned by then Acting President Yemi Osibanjo..
B. Okon Aku bridge at Ohafia local government was
delivered and is currently in use.
C. Nneato Bridge leading to Eziama Umunneochi was also commissioned and put to
use.
D. Street lighting projects were executed along selected
roads at Aba and Umuahia.
E. In Abia State
today, over 60 road projects are ongoing
with 26 others already delivered and cmmissioned for use by our people.
Some of the roads we have worked on in the past 2 years
include:
1. Omeni road - Aba (completed)
2. Adventist close off Ahiaba umeze road -Aba (Completed)
3. Kamalu street- Aba (completed)
4. Umuocham road- Aba (Completed)
5. Umuehilegbu road (erroneously called tonimas) - Aba
(Completed)
6. Umule road - Aba (Completed)
7. Owerri road off okigwe road- Aba (Completed)
8. Ochefu street off Azikiwe road - Aba (Completed)
9. Weeks street off ochefu - Aba (Completed)
10. Owerrinta street off ochefu -Aba (Completed)
11. Ukaegbu road -Aba (Completed)
12. Umuola road- Aba (Completed)
13. Ehere road -Aba (Completed)
14. Umuobiakwa ring road obingwa - Obingwa (Completed)
15. Egbelu mbutu/owerenta road- isialangwa south
(Completed)
16. Chima Nwafo Road- Aba (Completed)
17. Afara by-pass- Umuahia (Phase 1 Completed)
18. Okonu-Ohafia bridge- Ohafia (Completed)
19. Imo Ndinkpa Bridge
- umunneochi (Completed)
20. Road 2,
Housing estate - Umuahia (Completed)
21. Abiriba Ring Road phase 1 - Ohafia (Phase 1
completed)
22. Akoli Imenyi Erosion control - Bende (completed)
23: ongoing Faulks road to Brass street
24. Ongoing Ovom street Ogbor Hill Aba
25. Ongoing Emelogu street Aba
26. Ongoing Aba road Umuahia
27. Dozie way
Umuahia (Suspended due to low quality work)
28. International conference center road Umuahia.
(Completed)
29. Ongoing Dualization of Ururuka Road, Aba
30. Arochukwu road with bridge-Ongoing
31. Ongoing Abiriba-Nkporo road
32. Ongoing Ndioji/Ndi okereke road of 33km
33. Ongoing Idima-Abam road of 10km
34. Ongoing Nkpa road
35. Ibadan Street off Ngwa road (completed)
36. Agharandu street off Ngwa road (Completed)
37. Emejiaka street off Ngwa road (Completed)
38. Onyebuchi Street off Ngwa road (Completed)
39. Ongoing Umuatako road Umungasi Aba
40. Ongoing St Paul's street Umungasi Aba
41. Ongoing Nwaigwe street Umungasi
42. Ongoing Amechi street Umungasi Aba
43. Ongoing Umuocheala Abayi Ihie road in Isiala Ngwa
south LGA
44. Ongoing Umuaro-Ntigha Ekwereazu-Akwa Ibom road
45. Ongoing Umunkpei-Amaiyi-Umuru road
46. Umunka-Ugwunagbo Road
(Ongoing)
47. ISIAHIA UMUODE ROAD (ongoing)
Some of the roads we re-asphalted in the past two years
include:
1. Georges street - Aba
2. Pound road - Aba
3. Park road - Aba
4. East road - Aba
5. St Micheal- Aba
6. Jubilee Road - Aba
7. Hospital Road- Aba
8. Ube street - Aba
9. Adazi street - Aba
10. Umuwaya street - Umuahia
11. Abam street - Umuahia
12. Kaduna street - Umuahia
13. Awolowo street- Umuahia
14. Uwalaka Link Road- Umuahia
15. Ubakala Street - Umuahia
16. Warri by Club Road - Umuahia
18. Niger Street-Umuahia
19. Mosque street Aba
20. Kent street Aba
21. World Bank road off Orpet
G. Our administration introduced the use of Rigid
Pavement (Cement) Technology in road construction to guarantee minimum of 30
years life span for concerned roads. Most of the roads we constructed at Aba
were done using this technology following our realization, through painstaking
research, that to ensure longevity of new roads at Aba we need to ensure that
all our roads are solid with double drains that empties into free flowing major
drainage facilities that terminates at our already partially dredged storm
water collection points.
H. We embarked on massive desilting of drainage-ways
(gutters) at Aba and partially dredged waterside river to receive more storm
water and prevent flooding of our roads after the usual heavy rainfall we
experience for more than 8 months of the year.
I. It is on record that our administration commenced
the construction of the first ever Abia
interchange (flyover) since the creation of the state, at Osisioma Aba.
J. Recently, our administration awarded new contracts for
the reconstruction of PH, Ngwa road, Osusu, Omuma and Uratta roads with
preliminary works concluded. The new PH road is expected to be a 6 lane road
with dedicated BRT lane and actual earth moving work is expected to commence
this October at the roads.
K. Our administration is actively working on federal
government owned Aba-Owerri road Aba with drainage and other works currently ongoing
at portions of the road.
L. We have completed 2 massive erosion control works at
Imenyi Bende and Abiriba roundabout. Another erosion control work is ongoing at
Umuda Isingwu in Umuahia north local government.
As part of our efforts to reactivate moribund factories
in the state, we resuscitated the Aba Glass industry. Currently, we are
clearing up issues of ownership and gas supply to the facility.
To support our MSMEs with steady power supply, we are
actively working with the federal government to provide steady power supply at
Ariaria International market area of Aba. Our administration is also supporting
Geometrics to commence operations and provide uninterrupted power supply to
Aba.
The initial works for the emergence of Umukalika leather
and garment cluster is ongoing and we hope to move into the location early next
year.
Our focused promotion of Made In Aba brands has attracted
Federal Government support for MSMEs at Aba. Already, we have helped to
facilitate thousands of orders from the military, customs and others for Aba
made shoes and uniforms valued at over N2b. As a result of the pull on demand
occasioned by our promotional activities, Aba shoe makers now export more than
one million pairs of shoes weekly to neighboring countries. Unlike in the past,
the products are proudly branded as Made in Aba.
Internationally, our efforts at promoting Made in Aba
brands have received support from Ford Foundation who funded and launched
international promotion campaigns for Made In Aba brands at zero cost to the
state.
We have also launched Government enterprise empowerment
program (GEEP) that provides up to N100,000 to selected Abians who are grouped
in cooperative societies. So far the program has funded more than 1,000 Abians.
In support of our young entrepreneurs, we supported
the South East Entrepreneurship
Development Centre with south east headquarters at Umuahia, a Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) program, with N100m take off grant.
In the area of transportation, we trained and launched
TIMAAS to enhance discipline on or road use discipline and free flow of traffic
at our towns.
The perennial security challenges in our state are being
tackled through our unflinching support to security agencies in the state,
including donation of 35 vehicles that
are equipped with communication gadgets for improved anti-crime operational
efficiency.
Our aggressive policy of demolishing kidnappers
properties and dens, cash for whistle blowing on kidnappers and expansion of
the local vigilante (Bakassi) services have helped to reduce crimes and secure
the state. According to a recent report by the Federal Office of Statistics
(FOS), Abia state recorded the 2nd lowest crime rate in 2016.
In the area of healthcare delivery, a number of successes
have been recorded in the last two years.
Our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was launched in Jan
2017 to provide services across the state with initial 2 units of state of the
art Intensive Care Unit fitted motorized equipment with appropriately trained
staff. Service is accessed via a dedicated Toll free number 112. This service
in future would be tied to the State Health Insurance Scheme.
We implemented WHO/FMOH model of one primary health care
(PHC) per political ward. Abia State now has 292 WHO recognized Primary Health
Care centers (PHCs) across the state alongside Primary Healthcare under one
roof (PHCUOR) which is in keeping with international best practice.
Our deliberate actions and policies attracted the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF)
beneficiary pilot state status
attracting N1.5bn (July 2017),
from The World Bank following the successful hosting by Abia State in January
2017 of The 59th National Council on Health. These funds are to be applied at
the 292 PHCs for qualitative services at that level of care.
Our administration also provided the N100 million
counterpart funding for BHCPF, the first in the history of Abia state, and
attracted the $1.5million grant for the Saving One Million Lives program for
results now being implemented in Abia since June 2017
Abia State's Tele-Health Initiative (ASTHI) have
concluded the 6 months of pilot tests in 15 PHCs. We are commencing the roll
out across the whole 292 PHCs in the state later this year to help bring life
saving care to all our communities.
On our watch, the Canadian Government is partnering with
the state for the Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) of the 3
childhood killer diseases of malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia being anchored by
Society for family Health(on behalf of WHO/Canadian Govt). This project is now
in its transition phase to full management by the state Government.
The organized private sector in Nigeria is lending
support to our focused healthcare improvement effort with MTN Foundation
funding 2 PHCs in their new program “what we can do together campaign” in
Ikwuano and Arochukwu LGAs.
They also helped to build 4 brand new and world class
maternal and child wards at Okpuala Ngwa, Owaza, ABSUTH and Abia Specialist Hospital in
Amachara Umuahia.
Nestle Plc is collaborating with us in the areas of
infant nutrition and maternal care services. Already, an MOU with Nestle Nutrition Institute in Africa
has been signed. The first phase of capacity building training/development for
our medical personnel have been concluded. It is expected to continue with the
aim of further improving our health indices.
Our administration commissioned a General Hospital in
Obingwa, complete with accommodation facilities for medical personnel.
Remaining 3 new general hospitals located at Arochukwu, Ikwuano & Okeikpe
are at 95% completion.
We have within this period also re-furbished maternal and
Children’s building at ABSUTH Aba as well as executed a PPP arrangement to
procure cutting-edge medical equipment at the tertiary healthcare institution.
Furthermore, we have obtained Re-Accreditation of
Undergraduate medical training for new doctors at ABSUTH and currently working
on the re-accreditation of post-graduate training schools in obstetrics & gynaecology, surgery and pediatric
medicine.
Abia state recorded improved Health Indicators, compared
with other states and national averages, as can be verified from data available
with World Health Organization (WHO).
To further improve healthcare services and curtail medical
tourism, we are collaborating with The Hospital Group in the USA for the Obuaku
Medical City and The East Coast Medical Group in the USA for a specialised
organ transplant centre in the old Aba General Hospital while Capital Health
Surgical Group is upgrading the Specialist Hospital Amachara to an Urgent Care
Centre.
In general, referral medical facilities are at a level
never witnessed in the past.
In sports, we are the only state in Nigeria maintaining 3
top performing premier league status football teams: Enyimba FC, Abia Warriors
and Abia Angels
Enyimba international stadium at Aba is undergoing
remodeling with Astro-turf and new stands almost completed. We are also
aggressively re-introducing school
sports to develop new talents.
Our administration is deepening democracy in the state
and successfully conducted Local Government polls that produced elected
officials at the 3rd tier of government.
We challenge Mr Otti to embark on a personal verification
of the ongoing and completed projects of our administration rather than make
mockery of himself through his posturing as Abia's Facebook Governor. Facebook
governance is different from delivering dividends of democracy to the people.
10. It is clear that Mr Otti, in his mission to
dangerously misinform Abia citizens, depend on information sources that even a
first degree student will not mention as a footnote in his thesis because of
their unreliability. He relies on information dished out by his social media
hirelings who are, like him, based outside the state. His "global
village" sources only serve to ridicule him and his supposed status as a
former bank Managing Director. Why is a man of his supposed
"accomplishment" relying on
churned out lies and half truths to derail his state and in that process
ridicule himself?.
While Mr Otti "faced book" is completely
immersed in lies, sophistry and mischief, we are squarely facing the task of
delivering the dividends of democracy to our people.
11. Our administration has never shied away from
transparently informing citizens on all aspects of the management of their
financial resources. On regular basis, we engage citizens through town hall
meetings, live radio and television programs etc to appraise them of the
financial situation of the state. This fact accounts for the overwhelming
support and understanding of our citizens as we navigate through current
national economic challenges. If Mr Otti had relocated from his global village
of fake news to Abia state, he wouldn't have found it difficult to source for
details of our monthly inflows and major expenditure items.
12. Our administration inherited a monthly wage bill of
N2.8b and progressively reduced it to the current N2.1b without sacking any
worker or paying less than 100% wages to our workers. Not only did we use
biometrics and other ghost workers bursting tools, we also commenced the
deployment of an integrated pay roll system as well as abolished the sub treasury system for payment
of pensioners.
Today, our pensioners no longer stand under trees to get
their pensions and we are up to date in payment of salaries of workers of
ministries, departments and agencies (MDA). Apparently Mr Otti does not
understand that outside the MDAs that make up 70% of state workers, there are
other workers such as those in parastatals. For some of the parastatals, our
obligation includes giving them monthly subventions to augment the operational
revenues they generate.
13. Assuming, but not conceding, that the state has
received N74b FAAC inflows over the past 26 months, as claimed by Otti, it is
important to note that the projects listed above were funded mostly from FAAC
receipts. The state's MDAs are up to date with salaries while only revenue
yielding parastatals are still owed, alongside 4 months outstanding for
secondary school teachers.
For the period under review we have paid more than N63b
in salaries and pensions.
All these can easily be verified from labor unions in the
state rather than depending on gossip publications and beer parlor banters.
14. Local governments have three statutory payments they
make monthly: LGA workers salary of N920m, Primary School teachers salary of
N720m and LGA pension of N340m. With N1.98b monthly payment it is easy to see
the source of the 2 months LGA workers outstanding salary, 5 months LGA
pensions and 4 months primary school teachers outstanding salary. Otti's
allocation figures for LGAs of N46.96b over a period of 26 months averages
N1.8b monthly.
15. While the state's internally generated revenue peaked
at N1b in December 2016, the levels have fluctuated from the inherited low of
N400m per month. It amounts to dangerous misinformation to suggest that we have
operated in the past 26 months with a static IGR of N1b monthly.
16. Apparently it was difficult for Otti to comprehend
the clearly stated application of the bailout and Paris refunds as stated in
our previous response. In that case he should feel free to contact Labour
leaders in the state and the state house of assembly that includes members of
APGA to verify our assertions. However, it is crucial to restate that ICPC
reviewed our management of the bailout funds and singled out our administration
for commendation. Similarly, the leadership of Nigeria Labor Congress in the
state publicly commended our transparent management of the two tranches of the
Paris Refunds.
17. While we acknowledge salary payment gaps with some
revenue generating parastatals and have taken measures to ensure that the
situation is remedied and regular payment of salaries and pensions achieved,
some of the issues that led to the situation have been identified and are
actively being addressed.
18. To ensure sustainable maintenance of our road
infrastructure by the Abia State road maintenance agency (ABROMA), we recently
acquired 6 brand new earth moving equipment of CAT brand valued at over N600m
for all year round road maintenance works. Our decision to make the investment
stems from the premium our administration placed on good road infrastructure as
a catalyst to drive our integrated development agenda.
19. We will continue to make necessary investment and
interventions to secure our state, run a functional administration that is
focused on delivering much more dividends of democracy to our people as well as
develop our human capitals and other resources.
20. We wish to assure our people that our commitment to
serve and deliver on our promises to them will never waver or diminish
regardless of what political desperadoes and sore losers may throw at us or
them.
21. While we have taken time to transparently respond to
the issues raised by the defeated APGA candidate, in line with our
administration's policy on transparency, it should be noted that Abia State has
produced many successful serving and former bank managing directors including a
former central bank of Nigeria Governor. The only reason Mr Otti is attacking
our administration and crossing the line of decorum and sanity by approaching
official quarters to stop a facility that will surely help our citizens is
malicious politicking.
That Mr Otti's brand of politics is blind to our modest
achievements within the past two years does not bother us except that we had
hoped that all hands should have been on deck to develop our state rather than
sabotage it for parochial partisan considerations.
That a citizen of our state who claims to love our state
is moving from office to office, media house to media house to sabotage the
greatest development window that have opened to us since the state was created
is a new low even for dangerous politicians on a mission to misinform. We wish
to assure Abians that those who boasted that they will ensure that "Okezie
does not receive the AfDB facility to develop the state and become
unchallengeable in 2019" will surely fail in their schemes.
Enyinnaya Appolos
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
Alex Otti’s Reply
BEING TEXT OF A REJOINDER ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FINANCES
IN ABIA STATE BY DR. ALEX OTTI, OFR
My attention has been drawn to two press statements from
the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu in a bid to respond to my press
conference of August 16, 2017 whereby I raised issues about the management of
funds accruing to the state since 2015 and also objected to the recent approval
of a loan of $200m for the State Government by the National Assembly.
The two statements from the Governor contained very
uncouth and foul language and was full of abuses and insults on my person for
daring to ask questions about the finances of my state.
I will not want to join issues with him because I do not
believe that two wrongs make a right. Like he stated in the releases, let me
agree that I am ignorant, dumb, a misinformer and do not understand financial
numbers and international finance. I will also agree that I am ignorant and
clueless as he claimed in his releases, if that will make him happy and enable
him answer the posers I raised and pay workers in Abia State.
While I have chosen not to reply to the abuses because I
would not want to join the Governor in the mud, I must help him in correcting a
statement made in one of the releases aimed at tarnishing my image which,
however, displayed lack of understanding of how quoted companies, particularly
banks, work. The reason I do this is that I do not want this kind of mistake
repeated elsewhere which is capable of bringing my state and the governor into
avoidable ridicule. Part of the statement read “it is also hoped that Mr. Otti
will publicly encourage the auditors of Diamond Bank Plc to publish detailed
audit reports of the bank covering the period that he served as MD and the year
after. The public needs to know the sources of the operational loses that were
masked through asset revaluation and other smart accounting tricks”. Mr.
Governor, Banks don’t work like governments where the governor decides what to
publish and what not to. Banks are regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria,
(CBN), National Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, Securities and Exchange
Commission, SEC and boards of Directors. Publication of audit reports and
financial statements is mandatory at least annually. Banks have external
auditors and Board audit committees and the books must also be examined by CBN
and NDIC examiners. So it is not for me to encourage publication, it is
compulsory and must be done periodically. I am aware that some of the people
that passed through my training in different banks are part of your team. I
will advise you to consult them in future when you are not sure or have issues
like this requiring elucidation to avoid our state being embarrassed the way
this has scandalized a lot of people who read your statement.
Having said that, I now turn to the issues that I believe
have not been responded to and my further questions. The beauty of democracy is
that people are free to ask questions and I will like you to understand that
and get used to answering questions from your constituents.
On the National Assembly approved $200m loan, documents
sighted by me show that the National Assembly might have been misled into
approving a loan that is different from the one recommended by the president.
In my last press conference, I had indicated that on May 25, 2017 a
Presidential request for $100 million regarding Abia State Rural Access and
Mobility Project (RAMP) was sent to the National Assembly, however, on July 18,
2017 the Minister of Finance sent a request for $200 million to the National
Assembly in respect of Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Development Project
(ASIIDP) which curiously, is exactly the same request that Abia State
Government submitted dated October 2015. It would be helpful if you could
explain the following:
1. How did Abia State Rural Access and Mobility Project
(RAMP) become Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Development Project
(ASIIDP)?
2. How did $100 million transform to $200 million?
3. When was this request presented to the Abia State
house of assembly which should ordinarily have approved it before it made its
way to the National Assembly or was there a waiver?
On the issue of funds that have accrued to the state and
how they were utilized, information available from the office of the Accountant
General of the Federation indicate that you have received the following funds
from May 2015 till date
Period FAAC LGAs
May 2015 to December 2015 N25.59b N15.42b
January 2016 to December 2016 N30.56b N19.61b
January 2017 to July 2017 N18.28b N11.91b
TOTAL N74.42b N46.94b
GRAND TOTAL N120 BILLION
In addition to the above funds, you had borrowed N10b
from an old generation bank and had also received the following funds:
Bail out funds N14.105b
1st tranche of Paris Club Refund N10.6b
2nd tranche of Paris Club Refund N5.7b
By your own admission, you collect N1billion monthly on
internally generated revenue.
You will agree with me that these are huge sums of money.
I do know that it also costs money to run government and part of government
expenditure goes to payment of salaries. I do not think it is too much to ask,
if a citizen demands to know how these funds were utilized.
On salaries, I will advise that you come clean and let us
know why salaries are not being paid inspite of all the funds received as
itemized above. It is no use making claims that are not true like the ones made
in your responses to me to the effect that you have paid all outstanding salary
arrears. Those who are owed are there in the state and I consider it a great
disservice to them and the state when their governor makes untruthful claims
about salary payments. Besides, the world is now a global village and there are
credible sources including
‘Budgit’ that publish states that are in arrears of
salary payments. You may wish to ask for the latest edition of such
publications and see if our state is listed amongst those that are not owing.
Finally, on your claims of commissioning 26 roads and
constructing 65 others, I will advise that you give Abia people real roads. All
those roads built and commissioned by propaganda on the state radio and
sponsored social media platforms can only remain what they are: a mirage, when
many parts of Aba and Umuahia remain in ruins and impassable. You can travel
very far with propaganda, but it can never take you to a real destination,
except if your destination is imaginary.
Thank you.
Alex Otti, OFR
Tags
Politics