The Shameless Lies of Abia Government Should Not Be Allowed to Stand
The current Abia government can go to any lengths to sponsor lies just to hold on to the few gullible ones who are still being deceived with propaganda, media manipulation, and sophistry.
Unfortunately, Abians are becoming wiser by the day as they keep demanding accountability and good governance. The veil is gradually falling off our eyes. What is not organic does not last.
In the last two weeks, I have been under the weather, but thank God I am fully recovered. I thank those who took the time to check on my recovery process. Unfortunately, those purveyors of fake stories and non-existent projects were thinking otherwise.
Oriaku will continue to stand by the truth about what the present government is doing with our funds.
What has happened to our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)? Does anyone know what the Abia state government is doing monthly in terms of IGR? A government that promised to prioritize IGR growth has gone to bed because they receive about N17 billion as the state’s monthly allocation. They will never want Abians to know what we get monthly.
If they were receiving N6 billion as monthly allocation, I am sure we would have known what we make monthly as IGR.
The Abia State Government wishes we could forget those non-existent projects like the recreational facility of N6.7 billion already written off or the N11 billion spent on renovating schools that are non-existent. My brother, Chima Oraiku, the immediate past Commissioner for Science and Technology, called to check on me. I reminded him of what I told him and why he needs to speak up on the N2.7 billion ICT center fraud. We are all ears. Nde eriri eri.
During the period I was down, they claimed to have paid down our debt of N191 billion with N90 billion without being specific. There is nothing this government cannot claim. The only report from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as published by Punch Newspapers on 11th November 2024, pointed to Enugu State as the only state in the South East that made significant progress in loan repayment by 32.83% through restructuring and outright repayment. They paid down their loans by moving from $120.45 million in December 2023 to $80.91 million in June 2024. I took time to interview their Accountant General, Mr. Tony, who explained their deliberate decision to ignore some World Bank loans and restructure existing ones. In Abia, we just signed on RAAMP for over £60 million through the activation of the World Bank-funded Itungwa-Umuoba road of 19.2 km.
How did the state pay down? Can they share their mail exchange with the DMO in Abuja on the claimed pay-down of domestic debts? The local debts are still there, even with the lies about pension clearance, which the leadership of the Nigeria Pensioners Association has openly refuted, along with other components of local loans. The outstanding workers’ salaries inherited by this government stood at about N17 billion, as stated by the government, and repayment is on a monthly instalment asis. They have only paid three months; we still have over N13 billion outstanding based on the N1.5 billion monthly payment.
They also lied about a fake, non-existent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of $150 million within the year (June 2023 to June 2024). The subsidiary loan agreement of $115 million from the Islamic Bank, part of the African Development Bank (ADFB) cocktail of loans, was yet to be signed by the Honorable Minister of Finance at the time of that fake report, which disqualifies ADFB as the source of the $150 million. Besides, the error in figures is not possible. We challenge this government to send out the NBS link of the report showing which agency or investor brought the investment to Abia within the period under review. Five months later, no agency is linked to the fake, non-existent $150 million.
They want to claim to have introduced free education in Abia—a policy Orji Uzor K introduced and implemented.