One Year In Office: Gov Otti Celebrating Deceit And Half Truths – PDP

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State has described the Governor Alex Otti led Labour Party, LP, administration in the state as a huge disappointment, insisting that the regime only thrives on deceit and half truths.

A statement issued by the Abia PDP spokesperson Comrade Abraham Amah on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, said the State has, in the last one year of Governor Otti in office, become like a vehicle on motion but without movement.

The PDP said its honest and sincere assessment of the present administration is that Governor Otti has failed Abians because he has governed by the rules of autocracy, executive high- handedness, disobedience to the rule of law, deceit, visible lies, and ruthless propaganda.

Below is the full text of the statement.

“Abia PDP has seen the  usual display of deceit orchestrated by Alex Otti to celebrate the one year anniversary of his administration.

“As he celebrates with weary Abians who are distraught about the directionless government that is in office, the honest and sincere assessment of this government by the Abia PDP, is that Alex Otti has failed Abians because he has governed by the rules of autocracy, executive highhandedness, disobedience to the rule of law, deceit, visible lies, and ruthless propaganda.

“The inevitable  conclusion is that Abia has made motion without movement, and the people are worse than when Alex Otti met them.

“Our position is the true position of things, and any other alternative story is prominently powered by three sets of people: Alex Otti’s well-oiled propaganda machinery funded with taxpayer money, the ‘yes men’ of the Labour Party who know the truth and are ashamed to admit it, and the horde of netizens who have never visited Abia in their lifetime but rely on doctored social media clips to make their judgement.

“Beyond the re-asphalting of roads, which he has promoted endlessly, Abians must understand that under the cosmetics he used to make-up his record achievements for one year lie the catalogue of deceit and falsehood that not only characterise his government but eminently define its behaviour.

“To buttress our position, we have made a litany of Alex Otti’s conscious missteps, which clearly show that he set out to deceive Abians right from the electioneering campaign to his days in government, because he has always said one thing and done another, in a brazen disregard for the consequences of his actions on the very people he swore an oath to protect.

“1. Non-use of Abia Government House

“He has not packed into the State Government House, despite having an existing Government House, a Government House Annex at Aba and a state-of-the-art government house handed over to him by the immediate past governor, Dr.Okezie Ikpaezu.

“2. High cost of governance

“He excels in high cost of governance like using N5.6b to run the Governor’s office while operating from his personal house, N456m for information dissemination and N2.7b for security votes in just one quarter of the year, July to September, 2023.

“3. Sacking of Abia civil servants without due process

“He has sacked more than 15,000 Abia civil servants including Permanent Secretaries even when he denied saying such during the campaigns. In all the sackings, he never followed due process in relieving gainfully employed Abians from their positions.

“4. Owing of salaries/endless verification

“During his days in opposition, Alex Otti made a song of how the previous administration owed workers salaries. One year down the line, after sacking more than 15,000 Abia workers and subjecting the existing ones to endless biometric6 verification exercises, Alex Otti owes thousands of Abia workers 12 months salary, despite the quantum leap in the amount of money the State and local governments receive from the Federation Allocation Account Committee, FAAC every month.

“5. Lies About Abia Pension Arrears

“In what appears to be the worst display of official recklessness, Alex Otti said that he has cleared 9 or 10 years- (the inconsistency even triggers the suspicion of his ‘yes men’) pension arrears in Abia State. To puncture a hole in his lies about pension arrears, the Abia State chapter of the National Union of Pensioners, NUP duly acknowledges that its members were owed 45 months arrears before Alex Otti became the governor.

“6. The Abia Forensic Audit that Never was

“Last month, Alex Otti ran to the United States to tell the world that he commissioned one of the best accounting firms in the world, KPMG to carry out a forensic audit on Abia’s financial accounts between May 2015 and May 2023 and that the audit discovered over N118b that was stolen by the previous government, particularly, a said N10b which was paid out to contractors to build a non-existent Abia airport. When Alex Otti was pressured by Abians to make the records of the forensic audit available, he released a financial process review document which even showed how the said N10b was utilised for road contracts.

“7. “I met an empty treasury” but Dr. Ikpeazu left N3.49b in Abia treasury

“One of Alex Otti’s songs that filled the air waves in Nigeria moments after he was sworn into office  was, ‘I met an empty treasury in Abia’. The Abia financial process review was in fact, fortuitous for the Abia PDP and the former governor Dr.Okezie Ikpeazu because it exposed one of many of Alex Otti’s wicked lies. The process review he commissioned revealed that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu left N3.49b in the State coffers, excluding the FAAC money for the month of May 2023 that was paid in June 2023.

“8. Disobedience to the rule: the Case of Aaaron Uzodike

“In November 2023, the Appeal Court which sat in Lagos upheld the mandate of the PDP candidate Hon. Uzodike of Aba North State constituency and removed the Labour Party candidate, Destiny Nwagwu. For over six months, the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Emmanuel Emeruwa, under the instructions of governor Alex Otti has refused to swear in Hon. Aaron Uzodike, despite having all the requisites, including presenting a valid Certificate of Return issued to him by the election umpire, INEC.

“9. Non-Conduct of Local Government Elections

“During his days in opposition, Alex Otti vehemently criticised the use of transition committees to run the local government tier and swore that he would never govern for one day without elected council officials. One year into office, Alex Otti is using Transition Council Chairmen whom he illegally renamed as ‘mayors’ to run the local councils, and only appointed them six months after he assumed office and does not give them the full money that accrues to them from the Joint Allocation Account Committee, JAAC, jointly owned by the State and local councils. Just last week, Alex Otti said that he would only conduct local council elections when he has retrofitted the council secretariats with the transition chairmen. Isn’t that putting logic upside down and taking Abians for fools?

“10. Security votes and the spike in insecurity

“Before Alex Otti became the governor, he told Abains that he would not take any security vote, but the first quarter expenditure of his government July to September 2023 shows that he took a whooping N2.7b, amounting to N927m each month, in a State that was made peaceful for him by the previous administration.

“11. Opaque and direct award of contracts without due process

“Since he became governor of Abia State, Alex Otti has never followed the Abia State Public procurement Act to award contracts. The good people of Abia have never seen any publication inviting contractors to bid for any road or infrastructure contract. They have never heard that the State Executive Council which meets illegally in his private home sat to approve any road or infrastructure contract. The only thing they hear is that contracts for roads have been awarded without telling Abians which contractors bidded for the jobs, the costs and how the valuations were arrived at.

“12. Abia Has no Investment in Geometric Power Plant Limited

“Then comes the mother of lies that embarrassed Abains more than the government itself. After claiming that he built the Geometric Power Plant in just nine months in office, he publicly denied on national television that Abia State has no investment in the power plant even when the promoter of the business, Prof. Barth Nnaji had written to him days ahead of his public appearance that the former Abia government had invested N1.5b in the plant. Governing by lies is nothing but ineffective propaganda and today, Abians are aware that their investment in the Geometric Power plant is valued at over N28b.

“13. Abia Tower-Ossah six lane Road

Abians are clearly aware that the road leading from the Abia Tower at the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway was already existing as a four-lane road. Always claiming credit for what others did, Alex Otti said that he was building a six-lane road from the Abia Tower through Ossah to the city centre. In all the noise he made and the attendant huge sum at which it was awarded without due process, Alex Otti just demolished properties along the road and added a walkway that he claims will make the road a six-lane road.

“14. Abandonment of shoe and garment factory

“In staying true to his pledge of not touching anything left behind by the PDP, Alex Otti has abandoned the multi-million naira shoe and garment factories and the modern hospital in Aba, that were built, equipped with state-of-the-art machines and computerised equipment and commissioned for use in the twilight of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration. One year after they were commissioned, those investments have been under lock and key.

“15. I’m building an airport for Abia

Last week, Alex Otti gleefully announced to Abians and Nigerians that he is making plans to build an airport in Abia because it is the only State that does not have an airport in the South East and one of the two in Nigeria. According to Alex Otti, the federal government approved an airstrip for Abia and he is ready to upgrade it to an airport with Abia funds but he cannot fix just one of the dilapidated federal roads that dot Abia, like the Arochukwu-Ohafia road that is reputed to be the worst road in Nigeria and put up an invoice for refund from the FG if he can partner with them to do an airport upgrade.

“16. Borrowing of funds and putting Abia into debt

Since the creation of Abia 32 years ago, the total indebtedness of the State to local and foreign creditors is put at N90b. As an opposition figure, Alex Otti jacked the figure up to N190b and up till today nobody, except himself knows how he manufactured that figure. Already, he has borrowed over N100b secretly with the State House of Assembly under his thumb and without Abians knowing it. If he continues at this rate, Abia would become the most indebted State in Nigeria in just four years of his administration.

“17. Aimless and unproductive foreign trips

In the last 365 days, Alex otti has embarked on fruitless foreign trips to different parts of the world at the cost of over N1b. He went to Hungary, a poor Eastern European country to look for foreign investors and showcased “Made-in-Aba ” shoes and clothes when he kept the shoe and garment factory governor Okezie Ikpeazu built under lock and key. The Abia PDP challenges Alex Otti to mention just one company that has opened a shop or factory in Abia since he started globetrotting in search of foreign investors.

“All considered, it is very obvious that Alex Otti is not who he pretends to be and the PDP is using his one year in office to open a small window into the mind of the man who presented himself as a messiah and saint to Abians. As we step into the next year of the Alex Otti administration, the Abia PDP calls on Abians to watch Alex Otti closely, very closely, because his agenda might not pay Abia in the end and the only thing  we can tell Abians is to continuously hold him to account and ask him to be what he promised to be.”