The Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has alleged that the immediate past administration of Okezie Ikpeazu, transferred the N10 billion airport funds into 32 different individual company accounts.
News360 Info reports that Otti made this known during his monthly media chat, tagged “Governor Alex Otti Speaks to Abians,” held at Government House Umuahia on Thursday.
According to the Governor, the N10 billion had already been transferred from the state government account before they approached the Abia State House of Assembly for approval.
While noting that Okezie’s denial was not unexpected, Otti pointed out that the media reported that instead of denying spending the fund, they claimed that they used it for road construction, which is against the evidence available.
Otti said the management of the company (FEROTEX Construction Company) has admitted that the company never applied to be awarded the aborted airport project under the past administration.
He noted that the forensic audit reports indicting Ikpeazu of diverting billions will soon be published, and the rest of the work will be handled by security agencies, insisting that his interest was in the money being refunded rather than in anyone being taken to jail.
He said, “The immediate past governor’s denial is not unexpected. When it was announced, they went to the media abusing the government and saying that the government lied.
It is a report by KPMG which says that they diverted the money into roads. In the bank statement on the 26th of September 2020 when people were dealing with COVID-19, a debit went into the state account for N10 billion and it was payment for an 80 per cent contract of the Abia airport.
It’s true and incontrovertible. The statement is there, the report is there. By the way, the report will be published very soon.
But I can assure you that as reported by the media, it’s KPMG that did the forensic audit.
So, clearly, something went wrong. Our engagement with the company that received the money gives the impression that the company was deceived. The Managing Director of the company said that he told them that he had never built an airport before and that it is not his area of competence neither did he apply to them to construct an airport.”
