Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has restated his commitment to fixing long-abandoned infrastructure projects and holding his predecessor’s administration accountable for mismanaged funds.
Speaking in a television interview, Otti disclosed that Julius Berger is set to hand over the Port Harcourt Road in Aba next week. The road, which has been abandoned for over three decades, is finally nearing completion. He dismissed claims from opposition figures that the project covers just 5.8 kilometres, saying it is a full dual carriageway.
“Only Julius Berger could handle a road like that. The cost is about ₦36.5 billion. Let nobody deceive you about the scope of the work,” Otti said.
The governor also opened up about what he described as shady dealings under the past government. He revealed that his predecessor hurriedly commissioned an uncompleted building as the new Government House a day before leaving office.
“They completed only the ground floor and filled it with Italian furniture and marbles. The first and second floors were not even plastered. That is pure fraud,” Otti stated.
He went further to reveal that KPMG, a global audit firm, was invited to audit one of the state’s accounts. According to him, the audit showed that ₦10 billion was withdrawn for a supposed airport project that did not exist.
“A probe would only waste my time. My focus is to deliver to the people,” he said.
On the political front, Otti dismissed talks about defecting from the Labour Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The rumours followed recent defections of top politicians from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC in Delta State.
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“I am not decamping, and my party is not on shaky ground,” he said. “Not everyone must be in the APC. This is democracy. Sometimes, you have to stand for something.”
While he admitted uncertainty over the future of the Labour Party due to internal crises, he insisted he remains with the party for now.
“We fought and retrieved the Labour Party. What Abure is doing is just posturing,” he said.
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