Abia State Governor Alex Otti is trending on the social media as a performance report indicating that he spent a whopping N927 million within three months on refreshments and meals, settlement of honorarium, allowances and welfare packages for the eggheads goes viral


Describing the report as 'not good at all', prominent Labour Party, LP publicist, social critic and human rights activist, Aisha Yesufu also knocked Gov Alex Otti of Abia State over the excessive expenditure on consumables. She wrote, “Business as usual can never be the way to go. It must be business unusual. Expenditure must be reduced to the barest minimum.


"Almost a billion on food and welfare in 3 months? @alexottiofr get organizations like @TrackaNG to help keep you on your toes and monitor your spending and what to cut down on".


The report titled “Abia State Third Quarter (July - September) 2023 Budget Performance”was posted on the state government's website. (https://abiastate.gov.ng/abia-state-3rd-quarter-2023-budget-performance-report-2/)


“This Q3 and Year to date performance is assessed against the revised 2023 Budget that covers the Original Budget plus an Amendment Virement sum of N22,263,269,900 as summarised below,” it read.

“This Budget Performance Report is produced by the Abia State Planning Commission, Budget Department/Office of the Accountant General, Accounts Production Department and published on the Abia State website.”


In the report, the Otti-led government spent N223,389,889.84 on refreshment/meals, while N305,400,000.00 was spent on honorarium and sitting allowance for government officials within July and September, 2023.


The government also claimed it spent N397,520,734.00 on welfare packages.


Further, according to the document, N737,922,661.25 was spent to buy motor vehicles.  The quantity and those the vehicles were bought for were never stated.


Meanwhile, N362,804,050.00 was spent by the Abia government to purchase trucks and another N400,890,000.00 was used for the purchase of buses.


The government also claimed it spent N397,520,734.00 on welfare packages.


Further, according to the document, N737,922,661.25 was spent to buy motor vehicles.  The quantity and those the vehicles were bought for were never stated.


Also in the document, the government claimed N252.4m was used to run the Deputy Governor's office for 3 months.


The report however showed that only N25 million was spent by the government on repair of public schools in the state.


This is as many of the public primary and secondary schools in Abia State are described as “eyesore.”


According to multiple reports online, most public secondary and primary school buildings and facilities across the 17 local government areas of Abia State were ageing and decaying over government’s failure.


A sizeable number of school buildings in the state were said to be virtually dilapidated with leaking roofs, broken furniture, doors and windows; some completely abandoned, with tons of garbage, human excreta and overgrown shrubs.