The former governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has sent a note of warning to the incumbent governor, Dr. Alex Otti, to focus on governance and desist from accusing him of funds diversion.
Speaking against the backdrop of a report that his government awarded a N10 billion contract for the construction of an airport in Abia without doing same, insisted that Otti was on clout- chasing and deceiving gullible people with the alleged forensic report he conducted on Abia finances.
He said Otti was diverting attention from the quarterly reports of Abia State, which showed that his government had been reckless with funds.
Ikpeazu said: “Accounting for the N10billion, no dime was diverted. Otti is diverting attention from his own quarterly report which captured him spending N3billion on research and non-existent projects.
”Why is it that he is using the same Ferrotex contractor, who he accused of receiving N10billion 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, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, asked Otti to stop playing to the gallery and tell Abians the truth with documents at his disposal.
Okiyi-Kalu said the alleged N10billion 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 Ikpeazu that the airports in Owerri and Uyo made an Abia airport project unviable.“Okiyi-Kalu, who later served as a Commissioner for Trade and Investment, said it was shocking that after a demand was made for the publication of the much talked about audit, Otti and his media handlers rushed to a blogger to help them publish an indicting report against his former principal, instead of the forensic audit report. “He said since Otti became the governor of Abia State, Ferotex Construction Company had been awarded the Umuimo Road, Shalom Road and Umuode Road all in Aba.
“Currently, Ferotex Construction Company is equally handling 22.5 kilometres Isuikwuato-Abariba section of the 67.6 kilometres Umuahia-Uzuakoli-Abiriba-Oha”.