As reactions continue to trail the expenditure of over N54 billion by the administration of Governor Alex Otti on projects in schools in Abia State, a pro-All Progressives Congress (APC) group in the state has tasked the governor to give account of how the money was spent.<\/p>\n
The group operating under the platform of the Abian\u2019s Best Interest Association, also warned the governor not to contemplating joining the APC in the state.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Tuesday in Abuja titled \u201cWhere is Abia\u2019s N54 billion?\u201d, the Convener of the group, Hon.<\/p>\n
Barrister Eze Chikamnayo, said his group had visited several Local Government Areas in Abia state where they interacted with stakeholders on developmental issues before embarking on an on-the-spot inspection of public schools in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Ugwunagbo, LGA, schools visited included Ihie Community Primary School, Ihie Ukwu Primary School, Asa Umunka Primary School, and Ikem Migrant Farmers School.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Isiala Ngwa South, the team inspected Nneise Primary School \u2013 Umuhu\/Umuezu Nvosi, Umunkpeyi Primary School \u2013 Umunkpeyi Nvosi, and Obuba Primary School \u2013 Obuba Nvosi, Ikem Migrant Farmers School.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our dispassionate observation, we wish to hereby unequivocally decry the deplorable state of infrastructure in these schools, amongst others, noting that the decay was even more alarming in Isiala Ngwa South \u2013 the acclaimed and very contentious Local Government of the sitting Governor, Mr Alex Otti \u201cOne wonders then, if charity no longer begins at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went further to question the much-publicized \u20a654 billion which appeared in the Abia State Budget Performance Report for the renovation and retrofitting of public schools for the year 2024 and stress that a Budget Performance Report, anywhere in the world, details accomplished projects and the actual amounts spent \u2013 not mere approved figures.\u201d<\/p>\n
While accusing the Abia state Governor of undermining President Bola Ahmed Tinubu but claimed to be his supporters, Barr. Chikamnayo recalled that Governor Alex Otti as opposition leader had earlier promised that \u2018under my watch, not a Kobo of Abia resources will be stolen\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now question how such words can be trusted when his administration thrives on non-disclosure and only tries to explain itself when prompted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe further wish to express shock that the state government included \u201crecruitment of teachers, buying chalks our teaching aids\u201d among the items for which the \u20a654 billion was supposedly spent. \u201cWhen did employing teachers and purchasing instructional materials become capital projects?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on Abians to be vigilant, ask questions, and demand full accountability and transparency from the Alex Otti-led administration. \u201cThe future of our children is at stake, and no government should be allowed to mortgage it under the guise of inflated or questionable expenditure.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether the group will receive Alex Otti into APC if he decides to join, the APC group said: \u201cHe wants people to believe that he supports the president but the same time we know that in Abia state he is undermining Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we speak, over N300 billion has come from President Tinubu reforms into Abia State government and all the local governments are grounded, castrated and completely insolvent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not receive such a liability into APC. That is what we are saying. Nobody in APC Abia state wants anything called Alex Otti. He is a liability.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Abia state on Alex Otti has poorly funded public schools compared to its neighbours in the same south east states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lack of transparency and accountability we believe is a gross disservice to Abians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Abia Best Interest Association and indeed the APC Abia State, therefore, wishes to draw attention of the pubic to the fact that allocations and various intervention funds coming to Abia State from the Federal Government, have tripled since the inception of the President Tinubu\u2019s Administration \u2013 wondering why there was still nothing tangible to show in the education sector in Abia State compared to the situation in Imo and Enugu States, where the government has rebuilt, modernized, and equipped public schools with visible results for all to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As reactions continue to trail the expenditure of over N54 billion by the administration of Governor Alex Otti on projects in schools in Abia State, a pro-All Progressives Congress (APC) group in the state has tasked the governor to give account of how the money was spent. The group operating under the platform of the Abian\u2019s Best Interest Association, also warned the governor not to contemplating joining the APC in the state. At a press conference Tuesday in Abuja titled \u201cWhere is Abia\u2019s N54 billion?\u201d, the Convener of the group, Hon. Barrister Eze Chikamnayo, said his group had visited several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1541,100,1542],"class_list":["post-5383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-apc-group","tag-governor-otti","tag-reconstruction-of-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5383"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5386,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions\/5386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southeastposts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}