Some controversial developments, bordering on finances of Abia State are trailing the exit of former Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu after his eight years in office and the take off of the administration of his successor, Dr. Alex Otti.

The suspense and suspicion between the two political leaders belonging to different parties, took another dimension last week, when Ikpeazu through one of his aides dismissed insinuations that he left nothing in the coffers of the state for the incumbent governor.

It was earlier reported that Ikpeazu’s style of governance rubbed workers and pensioners of many months of salaries and pensions, as he did not fulfill promises to pay before exiting office. References were particularly made to the months of April and May 2023, which Otti has promised to pay.

Prior to his exit from office on May 29, the political atmosphere around Ikpeazu was tensed, following the lost of the governorship election by his preferred candidate to Otti. Public servants, judicial workers and medical doctors embarked on indefinite strike at the twilight of his administration. There were alleged looting of government property by Ikpeazu’s appointees. Again, Ikpeazu battled unsuccessfully to restore the bank accounts belonging to the state after they were frozen by an order of court.

The planned local council election scheduled for May 19 was also stopped by a court order. He constituted a Transition/ Handover Committee with Secretary to the Government (SSG) Mr. Chris Ezem, as chairman to work out handover notes. A friction that arose between those nominated into the committee by Ikpeazu and the eight members nominated by Otti affected the work of the committee. Those nominated by Otti claimed they were not carried along as their inputs were not sought, but the disagreement did not stop the inauguration.

The development, however, created impression that there was no official handover to Otti’s administration, especially with information on what to take off with, especially in terms of the weight of the treasury Ikpeazu left behind.

It was this negative toga on Ikpeazu, especially on finances of the state that one of his media aides, Ikechukwu Iroha spoke about last week when he declared that his boss left cash assets to the tune of N24 billion and $250 million to facilitate a smooth take-off of Otti’s administration.

Iroha, in a statement titled: “Is it true that Ikpeazu left nothing for his successor?” in his social media page, stated that as at Friday, June 9, 2023, the state received N24 billion through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) as part of a total of N48 billion standing to the credit of the state.

He added that Ikpeazu “perfected a $50 million World Bank facility at 0.06 per cent interest rate with 10 years repayment moratorium for construction of more than 500km roads, including Port Harcourt Road, Aba.

“The implication is that Otti’s administration can commence drawing down on that facility from day one to construct critical roads in Abia State and will not have to repay the money over the pendency of its tenure, assuming it is up to 8 years,” he added.

Iroha, who disclosed that Ikpeazu provided the information to his close aides during his last days in office, stressed that the “African Development Bank (AfDB) $200 million processed by the Ikpeazu administration is also ready for the new administration to access for construction of rural roads.”

Iroha, therefore, urged Otti, to stop creating wrong impression that Ikpeazu left only debts without leaving any cash or near-cash assets behind.

“As at the time Ikpeazu left office, the state was not owing any commercial bank, including temporary overdrafts having paid all.

“Abia State under the watch of Ikpeazu invested $5 million in Geometric Power Company. That’s a near cash asset, while similarly; internally generated revenue for the month of May 2023 is also available to the new administration.

“Prior to the exit of Ikpeazu from office, Abia State Government and office of Accountant-General of the Federation reconciled their accounts with N6billion standing to the credit of the state. What that also says is that Ikpeazu’s administration did not owe Federal Government (FG) but rather it was FG that owed the state. The current administration has access to that additional N6 billion fund.

“While we are still expecting the new administration to give the detailed composition of the alleged debts left behind by the Ikpeazu’s administration, it is safe to say that they are mostly long term development facilities, contractor debts and possibly outstanding payments to pensioners and salary earners,” he claimed.

But no sooner had Ikpeazu concluded than Otti dismissed his claims as false. Otti, who spoke through his media adviser, Mazi Mike Akpara in the presence of other political appointees of government insisted that, “Ikpeazu-led government did not leave N24 billion in the accounts of the State as they falsely claimed.”

He explained that $200 million and $50 million they claimed to have left for the new administration are loans they were pursuing, which are yet to crystallise, adding “outside the humongous financial liabilities Ikpeazu administration left behind, they also left physical liabilities in all our institutions.

“If Ikpeazu had the billions he claimed to have left behind for the Otti administration in April and May, why did he not pay workers and pensioners before leaving office since Governor Otti just took over from him on May 29, 2023?” He asked.

He went deeper into what he termed, “Abia Financial Status: Separating The Facts From Ikpeazu’s Fiction”, which according to him comprised state government balances of loans and domestic debts and described them as debits to the state government.

On loan balance he disclosed that; “In UBA, N8 billion; Zenith Bank N21.56 billion; Union Bank N598 million, Central Bank of Nigeria N47.71 billion, totaling N 77,927,939,042.82.

“For domestic debts; salaries and subvention arrears were N18.16, pension arrears N21.28 billion, gratuity arrears N27.01 billion, contractors arrears N4.56 billion, domestic debts arrears total N71.02 billion, external debts N42.29 billion with N191,239,307,593.67 as well as estimated liabilities,” he stated.

He also accused the Ikpeazu administration of not only generating poor internal revenue but frittered away the little generated in payment to consultants for no added value hence “they pay as much as 20 per cent which is unethical.”

According to the Otti’s media adviser, records show that as of May 28, the state had a financial liability of N191 billion as “the members of Ikpeazu-led administration were busy picking money from everywhere towards the end of their tenure. They took N2.8 billion from SURE-P that came in (through a bank he named) few days before the inauguration was taken by them.

“We made efforts to stop them from taking the money but we lost out but we succeeded in stopping them from taking the N3 billion from JAAC, as we went as far as writing EFCC to stop them. The failure of Ikpeazu to pay April and May salaries before leaving office was another indication that there was no money in the state coffers.”

Akpara who declared that Ikpeazu must account for Abia’s N191 billion debt even if he runs into All Progressives Congress (APC) to seek refuge, said: “Already, EFCC is on their trail. And as we speak some of their bankers are being invited for questioning by the agency.

“If Ikpeazu is trying to preempt anti-corruption agencies by making such provocative false claims, he should know that they work with facts and figures.”

During the Workers Day celebration on May 1, the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nweke Iheme had drawn the attention of Ikpeazu to unpaid salaries and pensions in the state.

He acknowledged that though salaries of civil servants were paid up to February 2023, those of MDAs, as well as local councils were in arrears, stressing that “pensioners are being owed 42 months and 21 years of gratuities; Abia State Polytechnic, 43 months; Hospital Management Board, 16 months; Abia State University Teaching Hospital, 27 months; Abia College of Education, 32 months; Abia College of Health Sciences, two months.

Others are Senior and Junior Secondary School teachers, 28 and 14 months salary arrears, respectively; Secondary Education Management Board and State Universal Basic Education Board, 18 and seven months etc”.

The acclaimed political godfather of Ikpeazu, Senator Theodore Orji denied being responsible for the backlog of salaries and pensions owed by Ikpeazu. He told people that, “for the avoidance of doubt, neither myself nor my administration is responsible for the staggering salary arrears owed both civil servants and pensioners in the state.

“Before my administration came to an end on May 29, 2015, core civil servants were not owed even one month. Parastatals were the ones that were owed between two and four months. The records are there.

“If for any reason they couldn’t or were unwilling to offset the salary arrears, why did they allow it to skyrocket to between 35 and 40 months, including core civil servants? So, I am not the problem, they should carry their cross.”

Residents of the state insist that the immediate past administration should come out clear on how resources of the state were spent, noting that even with the inability to develop infrastructure, workers continued to be owed to the extent that “strikes became a common thing in the state.”

They stated that the current feud possessed the potential to divert attention of the current administration to the promises of restoring the state, adding however that, “what is before us has exposed the kind of government that was in power for eight years in Abia State. It created penury and left many hungry, while very few smiled to the banks.”

Njokanma Okereke, a retired civil servant stated that the feud might have set record for future governors to be more frugal, and pay workers and pensioners.

He recommended full investigation of the allegations and claims on the position of the treasury as at May 29 with a view to taking punitive actions against culpable persons. He added that unraveling how Abia resources were filtered away would go a long way in making government accountable to the people. (The Guardian)

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