The Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has accused his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu, of committing fraud by commissioning an uncompleted Government House, describing it as one of several deceptive legacies his government has had to correct since assuming office.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News, Governor Otti said that while the previous administration had ceremoniously opened the new Government House, what he met on ground upon taking office told a different story.
“What happened was that my predecessor commissioned an uncompleted building on the 28th of May. And it is supposed to be new government house. So what did he do? He completed the ground floor, finished it very well, put Italian furniture in the place, painted it, and commissioned it.
“So after the inauguration, I went there. When I looked at the ground floor, I was very happy. But as I went to the first and second floor, they were not even plastered. No sanitary fittings, nothing. So that’s fraud.”
When asked if he was going to probe his predecessor, Otti said, “You have only four years. And when you get into some of these distractive things, you lose focus. I have too much work to do. Of course, we tried to. We called in KPMG at some point. And I’m sure you must have seen that, where they looked at one of the accounts. And they found that some 10 billion naira was drawn for a non-existent airport. So that’s the only one that we are saying, bring back our money or give us the airport.”
“Probing is a waste of my time,” he added.
Throughout the interview, Otti maintained that his government had not borrowed a single kobo since assuming office—despite inheriting a debt profile of ?192 billion, including outstanding salaries, pensions, and debts owed to government parastatals.
He said, “Let me tell you something. I just saw the numbers from DMO, that in 2023, they said we inherited a debt profile of $138 billion. But as at the end of last year, we reduced it to $66 billion. We have not borrowed one dime.”
However, Otti revealed that the actual debt was more than what the DMO recorded, saying, “Let me also go back and let you know that by the time we looked at the books and the numbers, we found that it was actually N192 billion that my predecessor handed over to me as debt.”
“DMO didn’t include pension areas, which we cleared off. They didn’t include salary areas, which we also paid. They didn’t include all the parastatals that were being owed, including Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic and then the medical personnel,” he explained.
“So those we have taken care of. And today I can tell you the state is running very, very well. Don’t bother yourself about where I’m going to find the money because that’s my own area,”
Addressing how he cleared of Pension arrears Otti said, “First of all, pension arrears, some of them we are, talking of numbers of 45 to 56 months, people were not paid. So we sat down with the pensioners and we said, okay, you are being owed this much. We need to take them out. So the leadership of pensioners sat down with us for a very long period of time, and we agreed. And by Easter last year, we paid a total of about $10 billion to pensioners to clear all the arrears.”
On the state of healthcare, he noted that the controversial multi-specialist hospital in Aba was not abandoned as alleged but repurposed as a general hospital. He explained that the nearby Abia State University Teaching Hospital had regained full accreditation under his watch and now fills the specialist role.
He explained, “The specialist hospital was not abandoned. It’s actually working. What we did was to convert it to a general hospital because it’s in Aba. You have the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, which in itself functions as a specialist hospital, also in Aba. So you don’t need to set up another specialist hospital in Aba.
“So what happened before my time is that the Abia State University Teaching Hospital lost accreditation in 2021. And the reason for that was that my predecessors abandoned the university. The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria came back in 2022 and reaffirmed the loss of accreditation. So when we came up in 2023, I gave my people six months to fix that teaching hospital, get the necessary personnel, and ensure that the accreditation was restored.
“To the glory of God, in December 2023, it was dramatic when the registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria came here. He said by the time he got to the teaching hospital, he was almost missing his way. And he thought the driver was taking him somewhere. And so the accreditation was restored in 2023. So everything that you require in the teaching hospital is there right now.”
“The idea is to have specialist hospitals in every senatorial zone of the state,” the governor added.
Governor Otti then reaffirmed his commitment to the people of Abia State, as he said, “Nobody is more important to me than Abia people and God.” (AriseNews)
