TheCable

Okezie Ikpeazu, former governor of Abia, says the fund earmarked for the construction of an airport in the state was redeployed to road projects. 

Ikpeazu was governor of Abia from 2015 to 2023.

BACKGROUND

On April 19, while delivering a lecture at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in the US, Alex Otti, governor of Abia, said N10 billion paid to a contractor for the construction of the Abia State Airport cannot be traced.

“Talking about corruption, I had set up a forensic audit as soon as I took over office in Abia last year,” Otti said.

“So that there won’t be any argument, I called in one of the top three audit firms in the world, and not too long ago, they turned in their report, and some of the things in their report are frightening.

“So, some N9.3 billion was paid to seven contractors for contracts that were not executed at all up till today.

“Another N15.9 billion was paid to 63 contractors with no supporting documents anywhere in the state. Another N12 billion was paid to two contractors for contracts that do not exist.

“Out of this figure, N10 billion was on September 25, 2020, paid to some contractor for the construction of the Abia State Airport.

“We have spent time trying to locate the airport and up till now have not been able to locate it. So, as we continue to look for our airport, we have also involved the security agencies to help us search.”

Otti repeated the claim last Sunday, during an interactive session in Isiala Ngwa south LGA. 

The governor accused the past administration of “brazenly” looting funds earmarked for a “non-existent airport”.

IKPEAZU RESPONDS

Responding in late April through Onyebuchi Ememanka, his spokesperson, Ikpeazu denied frittering funds allocated for the airport.

He also challenged Otti to release the audit report to the public.

“We hereby throw a public challenge to Alex Otti, Governor of Abia State to make public any documentary evidence or any kind of evidence at all that shows that the sum of N10 billion was paid for an airport,” the statement reads.

“When forensic auditors are appointed and when they complete their task, the reasonable thing to do is to make the forensic audit report public and allow the document to speak for itself.”

Reacting for the second time of asking through John Kalu, his former commissioner for information, on Tuesday, Ikpeazu said after the fund for the construction of the airport was approved, traditional rulers requested that the project be suspended and the fund redeployed to road construction.

“You may wish to recall that during the period, the country was still struggling to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with very low FAAC and IGR inflows across the states,” Kalu said.

“Shortly after we announced Exco’s approval of the airport project, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu received in audience executives of Abia State Traditional Rulers Council then led by HRM Eze Joseph Nwabekee.

“On the 13th of November 2020, Okezie Ikpeazu informed members of the State Executive Council about the details of his meeting with representatives of the traditional rulers in Abia State, who requested that we suspend the airport project and commit the funds earmarked for it to do more roads in the state, as we are surrounded by airports already but need to urgently improve internal roads that would give a further boost to the socio-economic activities of the state.

“The exco members thereafter voted to approve the suspension and request to use the earmarked funds for road projects in the state.”

Otti has repeatedly said he inherited a humongous debt burden and non-existent infrastructure from the Ikpeazu administration.