Gov Alex Obi


In native parlance here in Abia State, “otumokpo” loosely translates to juju or black magic. That’s what our Governor, Alex Otti, said he uses to govern our dear state and our pensioners have witnessed first hand what can best be described as otumokpo pension payment. 


In about 10 months, Governor Alex Otti reportedly accumulated pension arrears of N9bn while claiming in the media that he was paying pensioners regularly and fully. His lies expired last week when he paid pensioners the arrears and claimed it was payment of 9 years pension arrears, a claim which got Chairman of the National Union of Pensioners, Abia State Chapter, sufficiently angry that he dared him while featuring on a radio programme at Family Love 99.9 FM Umuahia to come forward with the truth, declaring that what was paid was the arrears owed by Otti’s administration and nothing more. He further stated that the Governor agreed to pay them only a percentage of arrears owed by previous administrations but never told them the applicable percent.


In response, a media aide to Otti claimed that the 9 years arrears payment previously announced was a “typographical error” as they intended to say 9 months instead of 9 years.


However, during a hangout with journalists on Friday, Governor Otti restated the 9 years claim and added that the N9bn expended was the “full and final payment for all outstanding pensions.”


Bearing above in mind, let’s fact check Otti before the storm arrives as surely it must.


During a press conference in Umuahia on the 15th of June 2023, Mr Mike Akpara, the current commissioner for finance in Abia State swore that they inherited pension arrears of N21,283,876,789.80. Similarly, Governor Otti himself insisted that he will clear all pension and salary arrears in the state by December 2023 and the nation clapped and cheered. 


With the government paying only N9bn pension arrears accumulated under Alex Otti, pensioners in the state are now murmuring that what that means for them is that they have forfeited the earned N21bn arrears which Governor Alex Otti had earlier vowed to clear by December 2023. According to many of them, this is by far the worst ever official manipulation of the pension administration system to take place in Abia since creation of the state.


Sources within the government confirm that state Parastatals are on course for similar otumokpo payment. Already, MDAs escaped because they were not owed beyond the one month before IKPEAZU’S exit when the state’s account was shut down via a maliciously sponsored court order. 


But to show MDAs a bit of otumokpo financial management more than 15,000 workers were sacked by Otti. 


To put things in perspective, Governor Alex Otti promised to pay pensioners every month from June 2023 but ended up owing them about N9bn in arrears as at March 2024, according to NUP. He promised them he would offset their arrears of N21bn by December 2023 but ended up declaring the whole money forfeited by March 2024. I suspect outstanding gratuities have also been forfeited because of recent rules introduced to remove next of kin from the pension and gratuity system in the state. 


Clap for our Otumokpo Governor. 


In case you missed it, Governor Otti was the same person that muted the otumokpo title for himself. During an interaction on Friday, 5th March 2024, a journalist  asked him how he had been financing his projects since he claimed not to have borrowed, and the Governor responded that it was through “Otumokpo”. 


Unfortunately, the journalist failed to stretch the issue even though she was visibly not satisfied with the Governor’s answer. 


The simple truth it that Governor Ikpeazu signed off on $50m RAAMP facility for the construction of 500km of roads and $115m AfDB facility for sanitation and Port Harcourt Road Aba projects in the state which Otti inherited from day one and is using. 


Let me ask the Governor directly here and whoever has access to him should feel free to draw his attention to it.


1. Our Governor are you currently using the $50m RAAMP facility left behind by the Ikpeazu administration?


2. Are you currently using the $115m AfDB facility left behind by the Ikpeazu administration?


3. You claimed not to have borrowed locally yet the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly confirmed giving you 3 approvals to borrow a total of N145bn. What are you doing with the approvals and can you return same to the House for thrashing since you publicly claimed not to have borrowed? 


4. The DMO report you referenced is surely for a period. Does that period cover June 2023-April 2024 that you have been in office?


In all, I feel for pensioners but they should look inwards to know what happened to them. They asked for Otumokpo solution through Nigerian Union of Pensioners executives in Abia State and signed off for it. All that Governor Otti did was to apply otumokpo on you. 


Happy week ahead.


- Nwandugbom JOK was the immediate past Abia State Commissioner for Trade and Investment