Former Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has reacted to the allegation of fund diversion raised by Governor Alex Otti against his government.
Otti had alleged that a forensic audit revealed how the
immediate past government of Abia State released some funds to some contractors
to handle the construction of a state-owned airport and other infrastructure
believed not to be in existence.
Governor Otti revealed this during a presentation at the
Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Washington
DC, United States.
But reacting through his spokesman, Onyebuchi Ememanka,
Ikpeazu tagged the report as a tissue of lies, intricately woven by a spin
doctor to deceive his audience.
The statement further alleged that Otto’s target by the
allegations, is to internationalize his deep aversion for his predecessor.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to
trending reports of a speech delivered by the Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex
Otti at a forum somewhere in the United States of America, wherein he made
certain allegations against his predecessor in office, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu,
bothering on financial malfeasance.
“Ever since leaving office as Governor of Abia State for two
consecutive terms, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has carried himself with the dignity his
present situation in life demands and has, as a matter of personal policy,
avoided any confrontation with the present Governor and his administration.
“At best, what Dr. Ikpeazu has authorized are clarifications
whenever the current administration seeks to misinform the public about what
transpired during the last administration. Clear instances of these abound and
a few of them shall be highlighted later in this release.
“We want to make it abundantly clear that what the Governor
spewed at that forum is a tissue of lies, intricately woven by a spin doctor to
deceive his audience and internationalize his known deep aversion for his
predecessor.”
Questioning the secrecy surrounding the audit firm in
charge, the statement said, “For starters, we welcome the fact that the
Governor has chosen to bring in a reputable firm of auditors who conducted a
forensic audit. According to him, the firm “is one of the top three in the
world”, therefore it must be Deloitte, Ernst and Young or
PriceWaterHouseCoopers. These are firms whose professionalism and global repute
are not in doubt.
“When forensic auditors are appointed and when they complete
their task, the reasonable thing to do is to make the Forensic Audit Report
public and allow the document speak for itself.
“Forensic Audits are no voodoo schemes. They are acceptable
means of investigating the finances of organizations and governments. They are
carried out by top accounting professionals who are disinterested in politics
and internal shenanigans in the organization they are auditing.
“They are not even conclusive evidence of any guilt on the
part of any person. They are at best, pointers to financial malfeasance. When
they are to be used in a criminal trial, lawyers will subject it to
cross-examination and the people involved will be afforded the opportunity to
defend themselves.
“Governor Alex Otti should, as a matter of public policy,
name the Accounting Firm that did the audit and release the audit report. Abia
State has a functional website. The audit report should be posted there
immediately. Going to a foreign land to make comments about a document that is
not in the public domain portrays the Governor as an administrative comedian.”
Addressing the main issue on diversion of funds and the
claims of the construction of an airport, the statement said Ikpeazu never
built an airport and had never claimed to have built one.
“At this point, it is important to address the issues raised
by the Governor one after the other, naturally starting with the one that has
generated the most reactions – the missing airport.
“Even the Governor himself found his own claims ridiculous
and he couldn’t help laughing at himself because his claims are utterly
senseless.
“Former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu never built any airport and
never claimed to have built one,” he said.
Explaining further, the statement said, “Facts are sacred.
At some point in our administration, the idea of building an airport came up.
It was an ambitious idea which the Governor wanted to pursue and one of the
schemes that were considered then for funding the project was a Public Private
Partnership.
“The State Government announced their plan to invest the sum
of 10 Billion Naira into the project. Some private investors showed interest
and the Government through the Ministry of Lands, commenced the acquisition of
a large expanse of land at a location between Ikwuano and Isiala Ngwa North
LGAs.
“There were interfaces between the Ministry and the
representatives of the land owning communities, and some investors actually
came to Abia to hold preliminary discussions with representatives of the State
Government on the project.
“While these talks went on, a section of the Abia public
felt that the airport idea was ill-timed. Indeed, the State Traditional Rulers
Council led by their then Chairman, Hrm Eze Joseph Nwabeke visited the Governor
and advised him to shelve airport plans and channel such funds, if they were
available, into the completion of some critical road projects then. This advice
aligned with realities on the ground.
“This was exactly what the Governor did. Indeed at a hangout
with some selected journalists in Lagos, then Governor Ikpeazu, after speaking
on the advantages of having an airport, told the journalists that he had
decided to backtrack on the project based on the yearnings of our people. The video
wherein the Governor made that statement is available and will be made public
after this release.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the only money the Ikpeazu
administration committed into the airport project was 10 Million Naira,
released to the Ministry of Lands during the process of acquiring the land and
to manage the interface with the local communities. Not a Kobo more was spent.
“The Honorable Commissioner for Lands then, is still alive.
“I have spoken to some of the officials who managed finances
then, and based on their answers to me, I now make these responses.
“There was never any design for the airport. There was never
a contractor selected and there was never any contract signed between the State
Government and any person for this job.
“Neither Governor Ikpeazu nor the State Executive Council at
the time, approved the payment of any money to any contractor for any airport.
“It is only God in heaven and Governor Otti who knows where
he found records of 10 Billion Naira paid to any person to build an airport.
“It’s disturbing that people actually believe this trash.
Which State Government in Nigeria will pay 10 Billion Naira for any project at
all and not make it a press event? At least, there will be a flag-off for such
a project that the Government paid 10 Billion! In Abia, ceremonies are held for
the flag-off of road projects, let alone an airport.
“We hereby throw a PUBLIC CHALLENGE to Dr Alex Otti,
Governor of Abia State, to make public the audit report that shows that the sum
of 10 Billion Naira, or any other amount at all, apart from the initial 10
million Naira mentioned above was paid to anyone for an airport!
What is the name of the Contractor who received the money?
“Who authorized the payment?
Was it a one-off payment, or was it paid in different
tranches?
Which bank handled the payment? Or was it paid in cash?
“Is it possible at all for any State Government to make such
payment in the absence of a design and even a contract document?
“So Abia State, under our watch, that was struggling with
poor finances, will pay 10 Billion Naira to someone, just like that?
“The Commissioner for Finance and Accountant General of the
State then who should be in the know of such transaction are still alive.
“If Governor Alex Otti fails to provide answers to the
questions above, we will leave the public to draw their conclusions about the
character of the man who occupies the office of Governor of Abia State.
“The above response on the so called airport project is
hereby adopted as our response to the other fables Otti told his audience in
America, with some amplifications there.
“He claimed that “79.3 Billion was paid to 7 Contractors for
contracts that were not executed at all up till today”. Those were his exact
words.
“There is no need for any long grammar on this. The Governor
should immediately release the names of the 7 Contractors and evidence of monies
paid to them together with the contract papers.
“We demand to know the dates the monies were paid and the
banks that handled the payments. Otti is a banker. He still runs Signature
Bank. These information shouldn’t be difficult to get. No one should take 79.3
Billion of Abia money and walk away just like that!
“If Governor Otti is serious about confirming the projects
done and which contractors did what, he knows where and how to go about them.
“At this point, it is important to note that the total
budget for Abia State under the watch of Ikpeazu never got to 170 Billion Naira
for any year throughout the 8 years he held sway as Governor. This included
both recurrent and capital expenditures. Indeed, capital expenditures in any
particular year hovered between 70 and 80 Billion Naira.
“Having said that, the public should note the assertions
made by the Governor on this point are false and malicious. Just like the
airport issue, we challenge him to make public the audit report.
“The next tale was that almost 16 Billion Naira was paid to
63 contractors with no supporting documents anywhere.
63 contractors? With no supporting documents anywhere?
“Since there are no supporting documents anywhere, how did
Otti know that they are contractors? Contractors are defined in contract
documents which also define in clear details what job they will do.
“Governor Otti should immediately provide the names of the
63 contractors for the public to know.
“Under the Ikpeazu administration, no money was paid to any
contractor without supporting documents. That is not even possible and no
proper Accountant will effect such nebulous payment. No Accounting department
will allow such malfeasance.
“Since there were no supporting documents, on what basis
were the payments made? Yet the people who allegedly authorized the payments
are still walking free?
“He went on…”Another 12 Billion Naira was paid to 2
contractors for contracts that do not exist”. These contractors, don’t they
have names? It was here that he said that out of the 12 Billion, 10 Billion was
paid to a contractor for the airport. Our response to the airport nonsense is
already stated.
“While we await the release of the audit report with the
names of the contractors who were paid, we wish to remind the public that this
is not the first time Governor Otti will lie in public about issues of the
State finances.
“Upon taking over in May last year, he told the world that
his predecessor incurred a debt of about 190 Billion. He “wondered” where the
money went to.
What he didn’t tell the public is that the amount he
mentioned represented the aggregate total of all the debts incurred by the
State since creation, including loans that were carried over from the old Imo
State.
“He also didn’t tell the public that since the foreign loans
component are dollar-denominated, their current value is affected by forex
differentials.
“For example, if there was a loan of 50 Million Dollars
taken 20 years ago when the dollar exchanged at say, 100 Naira, the current
value of that loan will be calculated at the current exchange value of the
dollar. So if you calculate the current debt of the State, it would have gone
far far beyond what Otti inherited, solely on accounting of foreign exchange
differentials.
“Secondly, Otti came on National TV to deny with a straight
face that the Ikpeazu administration didn’t pay any money to for the
acquisition of equity in the Geometric Power Project.
“Professor Barth Nnaji had also made that statement that
Ikpeazu didn’t pay. But when we produced documents evidencing the
acknowledgment of receipt of the sum of 1.4 Billion Naira by Geometric,
Professor Nnaji quickly beat a retreat and came clean.
“Governor Otti till date has refused to acknowledge that any
money was paid. If not for the sustained media pressure from us, Abians and the
general public would have stuck with the false impression that no money was
paid to Geometric Power by the Ikpeazu administration.
“Today, the government and people of Abia State proudly own
3.5% shares in a company that is valued at 800 Million Dollars!
“Another area where Otti has been economical with the truth
is in the area of payment of pensions.
Few weeks ago, the Governor went to town with the news that
he has cleared all pensions arrears in the State. But that was another lie.
“What he did was to pay the arrears of the 60% he owed the
pensioners since his tenure started. Upon assumption of office, Otti started
paying pensioners 40% of their pensions.
“This continued for 9 months when he now paid off the
aggregate of the 60% plus a random selection of some arrears. He now informed
the pensioners that what he paid them was full and final.
“His Commissioner for Finance, Mike Akpara confirmed this on
a Radio show in Umuahia. They forced the leadership of the Union of Pensioners
to forgo their other arrears.
“Yes, pensioners were owed during our time, but they were
paid some of their dues too. Otti is less than one year in office and this is
not the first time pensioners are getting bulk payments in Abia State. Ikpeazu
also made such bulk payments in his first tenure, during the Paris Club refunds
and bail-out funds era, but never forced anyone to forgo their arrears.
“Otti’s administration is much more buoyant. More money is
available to them. Petroleum subsidies were removed by the federal government
during his time as Governor making states to get much more.
“He is paying far less in salaries on account of the sack of
thousands of workers, the 8 year limit for Directors and the endless
verification of workers which has proven to be a technique to yank workers off
the payroll.
“As of today, hundreds of workers in Ministries who had
completed the so-called verification have not been paid for several months.
These are workers whose salaries used to be sacrosanct.
“When Otti sent an Executive Bill to repeal the Law that
prescribed pensions for former Governors of the State, the Majority Leader of
the State Assembly whose duty it is to introduce such Bills to the Assembly
stated on the floor of the Assembly that the State has been “spending Billions
of Naira every year to pay these former Governors”.
“Meanwhile, none of the former Governors in the State from
Orji Uzor Kalu under whose tenure the Bill was passed to Ikpeazu was paid a
penny. Yet the impression created was that these former Governors have been
receiving Billions. Otti is in love with mentioning Billions, real or imagined.
A real Banker!
“Otti’s aversion for his predecessor is well known and has
been elevated to a tool of State policy implementation.. Anything that has to
do with Ikpeazu that is positive must either be suppressed or poisoned. The
negatives must be blown out of proportion. Ikpeazu must be rubbished at all
costs.
“Ikpeazu built a brand new Multi Specialist Hospital at the
premises of the Aba General Hospital and got it fully equipped with modern
hospital equipment.. There is no state owned hospital that can match it in terms
of equipment. It was duly commissioned for use by the people.
“Otti came in and locked up the place for no reason at all.
He simply doesn’t want any form of positive mention for Ikpeazu. He prefers to
deny our people the use of such a solid health facility just to water his
aversion for Ikpeazu.
“The only reason why the Osisioma Flyover, Ikpeazu’s
signature project is standing today is because it will be difficult to pull it
down. Instead, what they have done is to allow the environment to decay and rotten.
The areas around the flyover have become a signpost for chaos and confusion. A
motor park of sorts.
“Otti has simply not forgiven Ikpeazu for defeating him in
the 2015 and 2019 elections. We understand that but these are facts of history
and no attempt at historical revisionism can change that.
“Never in the history of Nigerian politics has a sitting Governor
displayed such naked show of aggression towards his successor. For Otti, Abia
was created in 2015 and every Kobo Abia has earned since creation was stolen
under Ikpeazu.
“Otti should remember that he is a potential former Governor
and when he leaves office, his portrait will always be placed after that of
Ikpeazu. Again, he doesn’t know who will succeed him. History has a funny way
of repeating itself.
“We await the audit report.”
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