Dr. Alex Otti’s media aide questions Ikpeazu’s spendings

Time to Take Okezie Ikpeazu to Accountability Task.

By. Ferdinand Ekeoma

It has been more than 48hours since an online media platform, The Realm News chronicled the mind blowing financial malfeasance and senseless thievery that has characterized the Okezie Ikpeazu led government since he came on board, unfortunately, Ikpeaazu has hardened his heart and refused to offer any explanations to the posers raised in the report.

It is either Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu is held down by his usual sense of entitlement and ownership which makes him view Abia as his personal estate that could be carelessly overseen or run aground without any objection, or maybe the facts of the report have plunged Ikpeazu and his partners into a state of temporary coma and confusion, where they would need to take some time before coming up with their poorly fabricated tales of falsehood aimed at hoodwinking the gullible.

Governance is a social contract; yes, even though Abians remain unanimous and firm in distancing themselves from the questionable emergence of Ikpeazu as governor, yet, they are not willing to surrender Abia to Ikpeazu and his Blood Tonic godfathers, hence their resolve to continue to ask critical questions that bother on the governance of their state vis-à-vis the utilization of their Commonwealth.

While Ikpeazu and his aides are busy executing their 2019 popular project, which is the denigration of their nemesis, Alex Otti; Socio-economic indices of the state have continued to head south, at the expense of the suffering masses.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the Okezie Ikpeazus to focus more of their attention and dedicate more energy in halting the leadership destruction that is swiftly cutting short the life spern of majority of Abians, especially; Abia Civil Servants and Pensioners.

Should Ikpeazu and his aides turn to anti Otti Prayer Warriors and be preoccupied with the selfish but dead thoughts of having their mole become APGA governorship candidate, when official duty demands that they give account of their poor stewardship which has led to billions of naira gotten from Bailout funds, Paris Club Refunds, Statutory monthly allocations for the state and LGAs, Internally generated revenue, Oil Derivation funds, and secret loans which are suspected to have developed wings?

Ending the criminal and primitive acquisition of wealth and overnight riches, settlement of Blood(y) Tonic godfathers, and wasting of our Commonwealth on choice drinks etc is more important than focusing on Otti that is completely out of your reach.

Abians are united in raising their voices in the audacious demand for the whereabouts of our billions; this is a question Ikpeazu and his allies must answer.

Below is the exclusive report by The Realm News on our squandered N195 billion. Carefully read and take Ikpeazu to accountability task.

Exclusive: Ikpeazu’s government squanders N195 billion in 2 years

As Abia internal/external debts hit alarming N60 billion and $101 million

The Realm News.

Capital Development Fund documents obtained exclusively by The Realm News have exposed a frightening level of Abia State insolvency as a result of financial recklessness and sheer administrative incompetence of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu led government.

The staggering amount contained in the documents, borrowed from “unknown source” and difficulties the state government is having in explaining how the funds were used are among the many reasons it, unlike some other states of the federation, had refused to make its budget public.

The Realm News can authoritatively report that in the last 24 months, Federal Government has remitted the gross sum of N123.7 billion (N54.4 billion in 2016 and N69.3 billion in 2017) FAAC allocation to Abia State government account. This figure is exclusive of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), bailout fund, Paris Club refund, as well as monies borrowed from domestic and international lenders.

Abia generated N14.92 billion and N12.69 billion in IGR in 2016 and 2017 respectively, bringing the total money realised from IGR (taxes and levies, including Personal Income Tax; Withholding Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and Stamp Duties on instruments executed by individuals) to the sum of N27.61 billion.

During the period under review, Federal Government also granted Abia State N14.2 in billion bailouts, which the state government quickly took advantage of to renegotiate its liabilities, including taking a 20-year loan of N14.15 billion at a nine per cent lending rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ostensibly for the settlement of outstanding wage bills.

The state also received the sum of N10.6 billion and N5.7 billion, being first and second tranche of Paris Club refunds, during the same period under review. These funds calculated together amount to the sum of N195.96 billion realised in two years. External loans and key internal borrowings are not captured in these figures.

This sum of N195.96 billion generated by Abia government was not a far cry from the state budget of N203.8 billion of 2016 and 2017 combined. The state needed only borrow the sum of N7.84 billion to balance its budget but the documents available to The Realm News revealed that the government borrowed more and may even have under reported its debt profile to the Debt Management Office (DMO).

For example, in 2015 (few months after Dr. Ikpeazu assumed office) the state projected a N2 billion internal loan but ended up borrowing N43.02 billion from an unnamed financial institution heightening suspicion that the money may not have been appropriated by Abia State House of Assembly.

Interestingly, this questionable borrowing was at the height of the fiercely contested election tribunal, Appeal Court and Supreme Court battles that threatened Dr. Ikpeazu’s position as Governor of Abia State.

“That money was used to prosecute the court cases as well as settle upfront a godfather who sponsored Ikpeazu’s campaign and emergence as governor,” an impeccable government source who craved anonymity confided in The Realm News.

To retire the fund and balance the book, it was recorded in the documents available to The Realm News that government spent the sum of N26.27 billion on “Defence” which checks show does not fall within the state government’s jurisdiction. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) puts “Defence” on the Exclusive List over which only the Federal Government has jurisdiction.

Surprisingly, that period was the first and only time “Defence” appeared on Abia State’s budget. To buttress the duplicity of its premiere, it disappeared from subsequent budgets contained in Abia Capital Development Fund documents.

“The scandal unsettled the government to the point that the state’s Accountant General, Sir Gabriel Onyendilefu, and some government financial managers absconded to Kaduna with the documents where they sought an auditor to help reconcile the account,” our impeccable source said.

“Government became so desperate that they stated in the budget that common tin tomato was bought for N80,000.

“The N6 million so called constituency project fund Governor Ikpeazu gave each of the 24 state lawmakers in 2016 was an inducement to silence those who may want to follow their conscience in service to the people and expose this monumental fraud,” our source said.

Contrary to a claim Abia State Government made in December 2017 that the N30.45 billion Paris Club refund and bailout funds was used to pay workers’ salaries, a state lawmaker told The Realm News that the money was never appropriated.

“Funds must be appropriated by lawmakers before they can be used for anything,” the lawmaker told us.

“We never saw the fund, never discussed and never appropriated it for workers’ salaries. We are still waiting for the state executive for appropriation. But to our surprise we heard that it was used to pay salaries and gratuities.

“We have seen this before and it looks like the action of someone who has something to hide,” the lawmaker said.

Independent checks by The Realm News showed some sections of Abia State Government workforce are owed between seven to 14 months while pensioners are owed for 21 months, further making government claims questionable.

Sources told The Realm News that not only is the government mismanaging Abia funds, it is also spending public money to cover traces of perceived misdeeds. They also accuse the government of prying into local government funds and robbing the level of government closest to the people of needed funds.

We are made to understand that local government chairmen who should get an average of N120 million monthly to run their offices, are given a paltry N3 million after they have been made to sign documents indicating receipts of the actual amount. These local administrators are expected to pay traditional rulers and police in their localities from the N3 million. That explains why replacing common tap head in a local government area in Abia State is a burdensome task.

At face value, Abia appears as a state that is progressing. But it is, in reality, at the edge of precipice. This is because, within Ikpeazu’s two years, Abia internal and external debts have risen to N60.648 billion and $101.486 million respectively. Despite this rise in debts, there is little development to show and it still bothers the mind why workers are not paid.

The content analysis of the document which will be published in details next week shows that there is corruption within Abia State Government and obvious lack of ideas by those elected to steer the affairs of the state. We discovered wide gaps. What the government is getting as FAAC and what they are requesting for as IGR is low compared to what they intend to spend.

We also discovered that in terms of priority, the government is more interested in meeting some other obligations (like settlement of political godfathers or embezzlement) to the detriment of the worker. Overhead gulps the lion share of Abia budget, raising questions as to why some set of members of staff are paid while others are not. There is enough money to cover everybody if the government cuts its own overhead.

More worrisome is the discovery that the state owes a lot of contractors, one of the major reasons ongoing projects, including the much publicised Osisioma flyover, have been abandoned. We discovered through the document that Abia government’s net revenue cannot meet up with what the administration is planning to spend on the execution of the contracts. In other words, if Abia government claimed it is actually spending, it means it must be borrowing heavily and as such shouldn’t be owing contractors. If the government is borrowing heavily and spending the funds on what it claims to be spending them on, that means the debt profile of the state is absolutely higher than what they declare to the Debt Management Office (DMO). We discovered that Abia government compelled contractors to borrow from banks, while it uses its influence to fast-track the loans.

From all indices, it is practically impossible for Abia State to meet its obligations without borrowing heavily. Documents available to The Realm News showed that the government realises this and is actually plunging the state into debts at an alarming rate. But the dividends of these borrowings are yet to be seen on the streets of Abia and in the lives of average residents, lending credence to allegations the government is funneling the monies elsewhere.

To be continued…