Ikpeazu explains N10 billion Abia airport fund
Accuses Otti of reckless spending
THE immediate past Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has warned his successor, Dr. Alex Otti, to focus on governance and stop deceiving the people with lies and fiction.
Ikpeazu, who spoke against the background of a report that his government awarded a N10 billion contract for the construction of an airport in Abia with nothing to show for it, insisted that Otti was on clout- chasing and deceiving gullible people with the alleged forensic report he conducted on the state’s finances.
Ikpeazu noted that Otti was diverting attention from the quarterly reports of Abia State, which showed that his government has been reckless with funds.
Ikpeazu said: “Accounting for the N10 billion, no dime was diverted. Otti is diverting attention from his own quarterly report, which captured him spending N3 billion on research and nonexistent projects. Why is it that he is using the same Ferrotex contractor, whom he accused of receiving N10 billion from us for major contracts today? What stopped him or his auditors from asking Ferrotex for explanations? We have decided to respond to him with evidence of jobs done. The time of truth has come.”
Providing an insight into the spending of the money, a former Commissioner for Information under Ikpeazu, John Okiyi Kalu, asked Otti to stop playing to the gallery and tell Abians the truth with documents at his disposal. Okiyi- Kalu said that the alleged N10 billion originally budgeted for the airport project was rechanneled into other projects, following the approval of the executive council, after traditional rulers in the state told Ikpeazu to forget an airport project and focus on repairing major roads in the state. The traditional rulers had told the former governor that the airports in Owerri and Uyo made an Abia airport project unviable.
The former commissioner , who later served as a Commissioner for Trade and Investment, said that it was shocking that after a demand was made for the publication of the much talked about the audit, Otti and his media handlers rushed to a blog ger to help them publish an indicting report against his former principal instead of the forensic audit report.
O kiyi- Kalu said that since Otti became the governor of Abia State, Ferotex Construction Company has been awarded the Umuimo Road, Shalom Road and Umuode Road all in Aba.