Abia: Governor-Elect, Otti Denies Involvement In Freezing Of State Accounts

Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti has denied any involvement in the freezing of the State Government Accounts.

The governor-elect in a statement issued by his aide, Kazie Uko, on Monday said the alleged freezing of Government accounts was a smokescreen by the out-going Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, to evade payment of workers’ outstanding salaries as well as Government contractors on the excuse that Government accounts are frozen.

Otti said the futile attempt by the State Government to link him with the account freezing was to provide an excuse to shirk responsibility while challenging Governor Ikpeazu to squarely face governance until May 29, and stop using court orders as a smokescreen.

He said the account freezing controversy was a deliberate attempt by the incumbent governor to put the burden of payment of accumulated debts to the incoming administration

According to the statement, “a source who is conversant with goings on within Abia Government’s circle says the accounts freezing saga is a deliberate ploy by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led Government in Abia State to avoid payments of outstanding salary arrears of civil servants, salaries for the remainder of two months the administration has to stay in office and debts owed contractors for jobs done.”

“The source revealed that the order coming shortly after Governor Ikpeazu boasted on national television that he would pay all debt accumulated by his administration, was a deliberate plan to push the burden of payment to the incoming administration of Dr. Otti and save itself further shame and resentment by Abia people, who had through the ballot box ended the 24 years of PDP hegemony and bad leadership in the state.”

Otti challenged the State Government to publish the account balance in the affected accounts to justify his claims.

“The accounts in question have little or no credit balances in them, compared to the humongous amount of the state’s indebtedness to its workforce and local contractors. If Ikpeazu and his government are serious and insist that they are not behind this litigation, let them publish the balances of the frozen accounts for Abians and Nigerians to see,” the statement added.

“What the outgoing PDP Government in Abia is trying to do is to set the people of Abia against the widely-accepted incoming Labour Party (LP) Government to be led by Dr. Otti, who, “I can assure you does not have any hand in the matter”, Otti said.

Recall, that the Abia State Government accounts domiciled in various commercial banks were last week, frozen on the order of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Subsequently, the State Government in a statement by Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, accused Otti of masterminding the court order.

The government accused Otti of being vindictive, warning him that he has not yet been sworn in as the Governor.