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| * Ikpeazu in a private jet |
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A few days ago, a foremost banker and the 2015 Abia APGA Governorship candidate Dr. Alex Otti held a press conference in Lagos over the recent 200 Million Dollar loan approved for Abia State by the National Assembly.
Otti's press conference was necessitated by the obvious absence of tangible and verifiable projects and commensurate achievements by the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu led government to justify the billions of funds gotten so far by the government in statutory monthly allocations, internally generated revenues, bailout funds, Paris club refunds etc.
Otti’s curiosity was heightened by the fact that on May 25, 2017 a Presidential request for $100 million regarding Abia State Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) was communicated to the National Assembly, however, on July 18, 2017 the Minister of Finance sent a request for $200 million to the National Assembly in respect of Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Development Project which incidentally is exactly the same request that Abia State Government submitted dated October 2015.
Dr. Otti had simply asked why the contradiction between what the President recommended and what the Ministry of Finance recommended that was eventually approved by the National Assembly. He also wanted to know how the huge loan will be paid. He also expressed concern about mortgaging the future of the Abia people given the tenure of the loan which is 20years. Because millions of Abians, especially workers most of whom are presently owed up to eight months salary arrears saw Otti's Press Conference as a soul saving intervention, the press conference drew accolades and encomiums across Abia State and beyond.
Unfortunately, rather than humbly respond to the issues raised by Otti with their own facts and figures, the Okezie Ikpeazu government once again threw caution to the wind and cantankerously resorted to senseless personal attack against Otti, abandoning the key questions of what the Ikpeazu government has done with the N14.150 Billion Bailout fund, N10.6 Billion Paris Club Refund, N5.7 Billion Paris club refund, statutory monthly allocations from federation account nearing N150 Billion in two years, over N25 Billion internally generated revenues (According to government statistics), the N1Billion Agricultural loan etc.
In quick succession, Ikpeazu issued two anti-Otti press releases. One through his Chief Press Secretary Enyinnaya Appolos who captioned his “Alex Otti’s Lies: Abia Under Ikpeazu Is Open For Probe”, and the second one, through his SSA on Public Communications, Onyebuchi Ememanka who tittled his own, “Alex Otti And His Crèche Like Opposition”. In their usual pettiness, there have been series of stage-managed anti Otti announcements, condemnations and even solidarity visits being aired on the state government owned radio station since after Otti's press conference.
The content of the first release issued by Ikpeazu’s CPS, Enyinnaya Appolos, (though leaked information has it that the release was actually written for him by a notorious Sycophant from Abia North),was as appalling as Appolos the issuer.
Hear the outburst of Ikpeazu’s CPS, “Ordinarily, clueless allegations from a character like Otti does(sic) not deserve any response, but for the sake of members of the public, who may be misled by the federal government acclaimed misinformer, it is necessary to state the fact. Assuming without conceding that Otti is smart, as a supposed former bank chief, it should be taken for granted that he will be a master of financial numbers. But since he started his desperate quest to become Abia State Governor by all means with the objective of clothing himself with undeserved immunity from prosecution, he has serially exposed himself at the state and national level as a man who thinks he knows but actually know(sic) nothing about financial numbers”.
Appolos went ahead to add “it is also hoped that Mr. Otti will publicly encourage the auditors of Diamond Bank Plc to publish detailed audit reports of the bank covering the period that he served as MD and the year after. The public needs to know the sources of the operational losses that were masked through asset revaluation and other smart accounting tricks”. I intentionally lifted this part of the numerous gibberish spewed by this government for Abians and indeed the reading public to behold and assess the competence, sincerity and mental fitness of the comic characters presiding over the affairs of millions of sane Abians.
Any discerning mind who reads the text of the press conference issued by Alex Otti would appreciate the fact that Otti made reference to facts of finances gotten and admitted by the State Government while also laying hand on documents and press releases issued by the Ikpeazu Government and which contained specific claims, admittance, assurances or promises made in excitement after receiving the squandered funds.
For lack of facts to defend their financial crimes, ignorance, wickedness against Abians, or both, the Ikpeazus showed that integrity, honor and discipline do not exist in their mediocre dictionary, as they told outright lies and completely diverted attention from the issues at hand.
The governor failed more, when his media aides went on to engage in his known stock in trade, merchandising in falsehood and trading in dumb and unintelligent barefaced lies by trying to deny most of the official statements that came from his stable, dating back from 2015 which unknown to them were documented and kept for such a day as this.
After fruitlessly slandering Otti with infantile lies that are a million miles away from reality, they came openly without shame to deny a written public statement coming from the office of Obinna Oriaku the Commissioner for finance and circulated to Ikpeazu media team through the office of the then CPS, Mr. Godwin Adindu on the 20th of July, 2015 stating that what was needed to offset the entire arrears owed as a spillover from the administration that handed over to Ikpeazu was N6Billion, same information was transmitted across the airwaves through Ugochukwu Emezue, SSA electronic media.
Again, on Friday, the 18th day of September, 2015, Okezie Ikpeazu issued another statement through his then SSA on Public Communications, Mr. Sam Hart who announced to Abians that the State Government had been informed and were awaiting the arrival of the N14.152 billion bailout fund. Here is the statement in part “Abia State Governor Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has directed the setting up of a committee to manage the N14.152 Billion being expected from the Central Bank of Nigeria as Federal Government approved Bailout funds for payment of outstanding salaries in Abia State. This Committee is expected to be inaugurated by the secretary to the Abia State Government by Monday September, 21 2015. The Governor has given a commitment that by Friday, October 30, 2015 all outstanding arrears would have been offset”. Where then did the story of N38 Billion emanate from when the governor had publicly declared that he inherited no debts or outstanding from the immediate past administration?
Ridiculing themselves the more in the name of trying to discredit Otti, they wrote that “in one of his recent articles, the managers of the national economy described his article as “dangerous misinformation” and queried his knowledge of financial matters by asking him “are you for real”. As much as we hate directing this unrepentant liars to the path of sanity due to the unwillingness of their sinful souls to repent, we cannot afford to ignore them this time around while they swim in the ocean of destructive idiocy through falsehood, thus I advise the appalling Appolos and his Oringo boss to visit Alex Otti’s ThisDay back page column of 28th November, 2016, Sahara Reporters of the same date and other mainstream media and discover that the caption they ignorantly attributed to the “managers of the economy” was actually written by Otti himself and the caption of the article was “30 Billion Dollar Loan: Are You For Real”. The DMO merely responded by contesting the figures raised by Otti, before Otti himself finally took them to the cleaners with superior facts that they could not deny. Otti’s faultless and convincing response drew applause across the length and breadth of the nation.
In another ill informed and below standard mischief, the Ikpeazus wrote, “little wonder Alex Otti will easily forget the N2bn loan he ill advisedly arranged for MOCERAM Umuahia that later became a burden on the succeeding administration while the factory remains moribund to date”. Again if the Ikpeazus can end their alcohol induced laziness and pay attention to sensitive facts, they would be properly informed that the N2Billion MOCERAM loan they mentioned was approved in June, 2007 a clear four years before Otti joined Diamond bank.
Having studied and understood their diversionary political strategy very well, we know that the baseless issues raised above were not aimed at scoring any relevant point against Otti, but aimed at diverting the attention of Abians and Nigerians from the key issues of bad governance and looting spree going on in Abia, however we shall respond once again for the sake of those they want to destroy with their misinformation by educating them that the audit of bank’s financial activities are done periodically within every financial year, but published in the national dailies. This standard operating procedure is enforced by CBN and NDIC, so the issue of asking him to tell Diamond Bank to publish detailed report of his tenure, clearly manifests the characters in Abia state government House as a bunch of irredeemable ignoramuses.
Still throwing their senseless jabs with reckless abandon, the Ikpeazus tried to uphold their mediocre status when they claimed that Otti told members of Aba Chamber of Commerce in 2015 that he had secured a loan of $100 Billion to invest in Aba, consciously and dangerously distorting Dr. Otti's original statement which was that he had secured a deal of $100 million to build an industrial park in Aba. Shortly after Otti made that disclosure, the Ikpeazu uploaded a distorted version of Otti's statement through a fake online platform but the main stream media reported Otti appropriately to shame of the Ikpeazus.
While the Ikpeazus told Nigerians that they never took the N30 billion loan earlier apporeved by Abia House of Assembly and which was stoutly opposed by Otti and his party APGA, they weren't honest and bold enough to tell Abians that the loan failed because of Ministry of Finance's directive to local banks not to give loans that are not for the execution of capital projects, and since they had intended to secure the 30 billion loan and squander it, they were forced to beat a cowardly retreat. They also refused to mention that before the directive, they had drawn N10b from a first generation bank
Just like his lying colleague, Ikpeazu’s SSA on public communications, Onyebuchi Ememanka pitiably admitted that his non performing boss, Okezie Ikpeazu is guilty of financial crimes against Abians.
Obviously because he knew that the facts raised by Dr Otti during his press conference are indisputable, but did not want to admit it, he Ememanka cunningly abandoned the issues of governance and accountability to talk about politics and 2019, forgetting that after politics comes governance.
Even when he wanted to pay attention to the issue of finance, he ran into the eighteen yard box like a C. Ronaldo and ballooned the ball like an Aiyegbeni, as he dedicated energy making bogus claims about the non existing achievements of his boss, without coming up with a single fact to defeat the ones raised by Dr. Otti, neither did he try to tell us why the billions gotten by Okezie Ikpeazu so far have failed to take care of workers’ salaries let alone attract genuine development to the state, all he did, in line with the Ikpeazu philosophy of “Bring lets consume” was to excitedly justify the incoming 200 Million Dollar loan that is destined to go the way of the previous funds. Indeed when one walks in darkness, the spirit of Divinity takes the exit door, I truly pity my very good friend, he deserves to serve a far more honourable government, than this one that is infested with a bunch of lying clowns.
Ememanka wants us to believe that Okezie Ikpeazu who came to power unprepared and through nationally acclaimed thuggery and brigandage would do a magic with 200 Million Dollar loan when they have failed woefully to give good account of previous monies given to him.
Building or re-asphalting one or two kilometer road in this era is too pedestrian to serve as a justification for the volume of resources the Okezie Ikpeazu has gotten so far and callously mismanaged.
Ikpeazu’s vuvuzelas described Otti as a comedian and accused him of contesting the Abia governorship with a sense of entitlement; oh, how pathetic, irrational and mentally rusty are these my brethren who would accuse a decent, eminent, tested and trusted guru, who in spite of the Hosanna and revolution-kind support and solidarity he enjoyed from Abians during the governorship election still ran the most decent campaign even in the face of brutal violent threats and attack, then one is tempted to ask, between the man, Alex Otti who ran an issue based and peaceful campaign while enjoying overwhelming ovation from the Abia electorate in 2015, and the handpicked unpopular godson Okezie Ikpeazu whose number one campaign manifesto was ''It's Our Turn'', who actually ran the election with a sense of entitlement? Between the man Alex Otti who preached free and fair election, and publicly warned every of his supporter not to attempt rigging election for him anywhere, and the man Okezie Ikpeazu who encouraged violence, threat to lives of Abia voters, destruction of Otti's billboards, littering of Aba with Coffins and fetish objects as warning to Abia voters, instigated terror through hate speech, and encouraged the burning down of INEC offices; who could be said to have contested the election with a sense of entitlement?
Again between an Alex Otti who is merely demanding for good governance and accountability in Abia in the most civilized manner, and the squander-mania governor who goes about posing and taking his ''Boyz To Men Pictures'' with his amateur boys in chartered private jets while flying and partying around the world with our commonwealth, who should actually be described as a comedian?
Ikpeazu and his men need to be reminded that Otti has since gotten used to their gutter politics and recognizes the piggery in them, which they manifested fully in 2015, so he would continue to laugh them off while gallantly holding brief for suffering Abia masses.
We understand that Okezie Ikpeazu and his looting allies want us to abandon facts and face frivolities emanating from their gutter gibberish but they must note that the beauty of political discuss and dissent, especially one that bothers on the welfare of the people lies squarely in upholding the principles of originality and factuality through civilized elucidation. Therefore we must remind them that Alex Otti and his millions of Abia supporters are too determined, focused and resolute towards reclaiming the failed state of Abia and thus cannot be moved by the Okezie Ikpeazu's usual comic mumbo jumbo that are garnished with naked lies too elementary and too irritating to hoodwink even the most gullible palm wine tapper at Umuobiakwa.
So as long as they continue to rape our collective heritage Abia, and suffocate our hard fought democracy with reckless abandon, Otti won't stop speaking for the suffering Abia masses, because it's both honorable and Godly.
Ferdinand Ekeoma
is Media Assistant to
Dr. Alex otti
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