Former managing director of Diamond Bank Plc and gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2019 election in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has called on well-meaning citizens of Abia to arise and save the state from further being plunged into indebtedness by the government.
Otti said his patriotic call became necessary following plans by the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led government to obtain a $200 million foreign loan that he, Otti, was instrumental in scuttling in 2017.
The renowned former banker said instead of angling to sink Abia State further into debt the Abia government should account to the citizens what it had been able to achieve with over N355 billion it had amassed from Federation Account and internally-generated revenue, in the last four and half years.
Otti, while addressing the press Monday in Lagos, said images and information out of Abia State did not in any way reflect a state where at least 20 percent of that humungous amount of money had been spent for developmental needs.
He said: “Some of you will recall that on the 16th of August 2017, I had organised a similar press conference to raise alarm over the approval granted by the Presidency and the National Assembly to the Ikpeazu government to plunge the state into a fresh loan of $200m from African Development Bank.
“I had noticed some irregularities in the documentation for that loan and raised a few posers. I had stated that documents sighted by me showed that the National Assembly might have been misled into approving a loan that is different from the one recommended by the Presidency.
“I had indicated that on May 25, 2017 a Presidential request for $100 million regarding Abia State Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) was sent to the National Assembly, however, on July 18, 2017 the then Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun sent a request for $200 million to the National Assembly in respect of Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Development Project (ASIIDP), which curiously, is exactly the same request that Abia State Government submitted in October 2015.
Otti said he had gone further to ask some critical questions like, how Abia State Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) became Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Development Project (ASIIDP); how $100 million became to $200 million; and when the request was presented to the Abia State House of Assembly which should ordinarily have approved it before it made its way to the National Assembly.
“Instead of answering the questions, the Abia State government went up in arms against me, abusing and mudslinging me. But the good news is that my opposition to the loan paid off as the authorities saw merit in my posers and disallowed the loan,” he said.
Otti said it would be sad if well-meaning elders in the state continued to keep quiet and watch while Governor Ikpeazu and his government run Abia aground and further mortgage the future of generations of Abia people, born and unborn.
“At this point I would want to call the attention and reawaken the consciousness of some well-to-do and respected citizens and elders of Abia state, especially those who have access to the government in Abia, to intervene and save this government from itself as well as save the future generation from being mortgaged.
“In line with the adage that an elder doesn’t stand idly by and watch, while a goat delivers in tethers, I therefore call on Abia elders, senior citizens, royal fathers, captains of industry, serving and former lawmakers at the state and national levels, elder statesmen and political stakeholders across political party lines, human rights activists and opinion leaders to rise to the challenge posed by the current destructive leadership ravaging Abia state.
“I call on our Clergymen and women to speak out positively. There comes a time when silence is no longer golden. Your subjects are being owed salaries, your members are living in abject poverty and in filth. People are dying prematurely out of hardship and lack of good medical facilities. Businesses are closing down and some are relocating making it difficult for our children to get jobs. Crime is on the increase and life is becoming unbearable,” Otti recounted.
He acknowledged that a few had spoken up, but majority were either sitting on the fence or preaching peace.
Borrowing from the Bible, he admonished: “The word of God says in Jeremiah 6:14 ‘they dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, Peace, Peace they say, when there is no peace’. Again, we are reminded of Ezekiel 13:10 ‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, Peace, when there is no peace, and because when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall.’ My prayer is that this will not be our portion!”
He added: “To all those who can speak but have chosen to be silent, I remind you of the words of Frantz Fanon thus, ‘every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor’.”
