Bianca, Umeh, Maku, others to storm Alet Otti’s declaration today

Wife of Biafra Warlord and leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) (late),Bianca Ojukwu, Senator Victor Umeh, Labaran Maku (former Information Minister) and other stalwarts of APGA are expected to be in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State on Friday.

Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma, media aide to 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the party in the state, Dr. Alex Otti, Former MD/CEO Diamond in a press briefing on Thursday in Aba disclosed that Bianca and others would be coming to witness the public declaration of Otti to contest 2019 gubernatorial election under the platform of the party holding at Ngwa High School, near Osisioma, Aba.

It could be recalled that Otti was the runner-up in the keenly contested 2015 gubernatorial election in the state.

According to his media aide, Otti’s decision to contest again is because of the fact that those issues that prompted him to contest in 2015 were yet to be addressed by the incumbent administration led by Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ekeoma who accused the incumbent government of mismanagement of public funds and overshooting of contract sums said “after what happened; in 2015, those people who stole our mandate have the opportunity to preside the affairs of our dear state in the past three years.

“Dr. Alex Otti has critically accessed the performance of the government in power and we had compared between what the government has gotten and what it has given and we’ve come to the conclusion that the government has performed very abysmally.

“As at this moment, it’s a verifiable fact that many Abia Civil Servants are being owed 10 months arrears of salary.

“Many health institutions in the state are lying comatose. The fact that you owe health workers and other worker nine months salary arrears has defeated every claim of achievements.

“When you owe health workers for nine months, tell me on what grounds do you expect that medical doctor to attend to patients in case of emergency? People will die because the leadership wants it so. Doctors now visit Abia health institutions for the sake of appearance as most of them now look for alternatives. Our people are suffering. The man has failed.

“In educational sector, Abia poly is a vivid example of his failure. The college of education is also there for you all to see. Many other institutions in Abia are dead and long buried. The government is running away from its responsibilities by saying institutions that should generate their revenue. They pay some people half and leave others to die which is bringing unnecessary dichotomy in our Civil Service, which is an embarrassment and clearly shows that the government does not have the capacity to coordinate the state.

“On the area of infrastructure, you hear the government celebrate that they’ve turned the state around. Then we are beginning to wonder if they really know the meaning of infrastructure.

“The government has built a few road which we must admit, but then when you compare some of the roads they have completed or is doing, you’ll begin to see the reality of their holistic failure.

“Look at Faulks Road, the government claimed that the Faulks Road is 4.6km road and they’re building at the cost of 6.8b. What that means is that you’re building a kilometer road with almost N1.4bn.

“Again, they claimed the road is being built by a construction company called Setraco Heartland, but you and I know that there’s no construction company called Setraco Heartland. What we have as a construction company is Setraco.

“What Abia government did was to bring in a mushroom company called Heartland, owned by friends of the governor and now hired equipment from Setraco and now branded the construction company handling roads in Abia to be Setraco Heartland.

“I’ve raised the issue of cost of the roads they are talking about. How can they be building a 4.6km road at the cost of 6.8b? Even World Bank benchmark if you change it to naira, its 250m to build a road in Nigeria. Even in Bayelsa.

“They said we’re ignorant in what they’re doing on the road. They claimed it is a construction masterpiece that they laid pipes at Ife-Obara. The question is, at what cost did they lay the pipe?

“Go to the Ife-Obara where the supposed masterpiece construction is taking place for over 3 years and see how flood is now overwhelming the pipes. Ariaria International Market that the whole world hear of is still at the mercy of flood at every drop of rain.

“The Aba road in Umuahia is less than 400meters, but they said they are building it at the cost of 1b. The flyover at Osisioma which is very small is costing them 5b. These things are questionable. The government is now behaving as if they’re carrying out some of these road construction projects for the purpose of using it to divert funds. With all these you see they’ve failed.

“When you build few kilometer roads you start dancing and celebrating. When he compares himself with a disaster of a governor like his predecessor T A.Orji in terms of achievement, it means he’s totally disconnected from reality because it’s wrong to compare yourself with a failure. You cannot access your success in governance by comparing yourself with failures.

“It’s been long we’ve been hearing of jingles of agricultural revolution in Abia. You hear of Abia rice, but there’s no market you go in a commercial state like Abia and see such rice. Where do they sell it? You hear of Abia mushroom, where is it been sold? You hear of Abia eggs and all kinds of things which we don’t see.

“We’ve always challenged to be open to Abians. Tell the people how much you’ve gotten and what you did with it in three years. When you put all these together, you’ll see that the governor has failed.

“There’s no justification for a government that has been in power for three years whom outside their statutory monthly allocation, the IGR, oil derivation fund, and unexpectedly you got over 30b from Paris Refund and bailout fund yet you cannot pay workers.

“Meanwhile, this governor openly assured that he’ll use the first trench of the Paris refund to clear workers salaries, but that was never the reality. What they did was any time it comes, the government connives with NLC Chairman to hold briefs and tell the suffering and oppressed workers that the funds are being utilized.

“When you’re  a governor for three years you intentionally refused to pay workers, hoping that may be two to three months before the election you’ll hurriedly clear the salary arrears with the intention of using it to woo the workers to vote you back it shows you’re a failure.

“What the governor is doing is cosmetic governance. He has failed. Dr. Alex Otti is convinced that the man in charge has failed. Otti’s record in financial and human management is crystal clear as his achievements speaks right there in his last job.

“What Alex Otti will do is to leverage on his wealth of knowledge, experience, integrity, contacts and connections to pilot the affairs of of Abia State. His achievements in the corporate world where you have stiffer regulations are clear and coming to pilot a state with abundant resources, people who are willing and ready to cooperate with government and a hardworking and supportive population, it will be easier for him to turn things around.

“His competence is well verified by institutions. He doesn’t need to travel from one country to another to preach to investors to come to Abia. The investors aren’t daft. All they needed to do is to browse about you and your state and see how you owe workers and the state of your infrastructure, your profile and that alone is enough. The contact and connection of Alex Otti will open doors for Abia. That’s what he can do that these people in power can never do. They’ve been traveling for over 3 years, but up till now, no single foreign investor has been brought in. Even if they travel from now till God knows when, investors only want men of integrity that they can trust with their investment.”