The Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has called for an immediate investigation of the state governor Alex Otti over a whooping sum of N90bn the governor said he paid to a contractor as a debt the former administration paid as a debt.
Mr. Otti has said that his administration paid N90bn of the N191.2bn he inherited from the past governments owed even without taking any new loans. He explained that his predecessor met about N35bn from another Government in 2015.
Otti had said, “I inherited N191.3 billion from my predecessor in May 2023. My predecessor inherited about N35 billion from his predecessor in 2015.
“But today, my administration has paid over N90billion of the debt we inherited.
“We still pay salaries and pensions every month. And I have not borrowed a Kobo from anybody.”
The comment has not gone down well with the PDP, which ruled the state till 2023 when Otti and Labour Party came to power. The chairman of the party, Abraham Amah argued that the past administrationa didn’t leave any debt behind.
“The attention of Abia PDP has been drawn to recent claims you made regarding the payment of N90billion to contractors in our state, which you allege to be debts incurred by the previous PDP-led administration.
“To be clear, the Abia PDP is unaware of the existence of such a debt incurred by the immediate past PDP administration. It will serve the interests of Abians if you put out the records as proof of your claims,” Amah stated.
This staggering amount warrants immediate scrutiny, and we urge you to provide clarity on how this figure was determined and the basis for these payments.
“Our people deserve to have confidence in their leaders, and without clear communication, such confidence is eroded,” he said.
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