Abia State businessman and politician Emmanuel Egwu has dismissed claims by Governor Alex Otti regarding the execution of projects and other touted achievements during his one-and-a-half-year tenure, stating that they do not reflect reality.
Speaking in a chat with reporters over the weekend, he alleged that there is a lack of transparency in the management of the state’s finances.
In response to the administration’s claims of numerous achievements, he challenged the governor to provide the locations of some of the advertised projects.
The Abia businessman demanded evidence of other achievements being touted by Governor Otti and clarification on how state resources have been expended.
Egwu stated, “We declare that the above projects do not exist in Abia State. We have searched for these projects with our own eyes but have been unable to locate them. Similarly, all our efforts to trace the locations of these multi-billion-naira manipulated projects in Abia State using world-class Artificial Intelligence (AI) have failed abysmally.
“It suggests that only the executor of the projects knows the exact locations where he has sited them for the alleged benefit of our people. We, therefore, call on Governor Alex Otti to show us the locations of the projects he claims to have implemented with Abia State’s funds.”
He added, “The contracts are fictitious; they don’t exist anywhere. If they do exist, there is a Commissioner of Works who should explain to Abians where the roads are.
“I issued a challenge last month: if any of these roads exist anywhere, let them come and claim one million naira. I went to some radio stations with the one million naira cheque and challenged them to come and show us this 108 roads you said you have fixed. To date, nobody has come forward to disprove that.
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“So, we are not fools. All of us worked for this man, campaigned for him, and voted for him, believing that it would be a new dawn for Abia as he promised, but the reality is different,” Egwu added.
When asked whether the issue pertains to uncompleted or non-existent projects, Egwu explained, “Let me be clear: some of these roads exist, but he is exaggerating the number of roads he has executed. Even with the number of roads completed, we do not know the cost implications of these projects.
“I am a taxpayer, I reside here in Abia, so I am an interested party and a stakeholder. We should know the cost implications and the total expenditure on the construction of the roads he claims to have built. We have no idea of the amount being spent on these projects.
“Regarding the construction of 108 projects: during his media parley, the governor claimed to have built or reconstructed 108 roads. However, some of us say these claims are fallacies; they do not exist anywhere. If you have indeed built 108 roads, can we see them? Don’t they have names? Don’t they have addresses?”
The politician noted that what he has observed in Abia so far are merely bus stops.
“He claimed he spent about N4 billion in the name of building Recreation Centers/Parks, but none of these exist anywhere. What we are seeing recently are bus stops. I don’t know if bus stops should be likened to recreation parks,” he asserted.
