Abia Govt faults N24 Billion left by Ikpeazu’s administration; says he left N191billion debt
Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
The Abia State government has said it is not true that the Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration left any N24 billion in the account of Abia state government as falsely claimed by his media handlers.
The Special Adviser to Governor Alex otti on Finance, Mr. Mike Akpara made this disclosure in a statement in Umuahia the State capital on Thursday.
He said that the 200 million Dollars and 50 million Dollars the past administration claimed it left for the new administration were loans they were pursuing which had yet to crystalize.
The Special Adviser reviewed that outside the humongous financial liabilities left behind by the Ikpeazu-led government, the administration also left physical liabilities in all key institutions of Abia State government including, the University Teaching Hospital, Abia Polytechnic among others
He further disclosed that the summary of Abia State Government balances with different banks as at 28th May 2023 included; loan balance to UBA (8,012,830,371.44)
,ZENITH BANK (21,557,168,761.71)
, UNION BANK (597,637,399.55)
and CENTRAL BANK (47,760,302,510.12)
, making a total balance of (77,927,939,042.82) for loan balance while domestic debts were as follows; Salaries and subventions arrears (18,162,102,692.92), pension arrears (21,283,876,789.80), gratuity arrears (27,012,996,061.64)
and contractors arrears (4,563,186,896.65)
leaving a total domestic debts arrears at 71,022,162,441.01.
He also made public that the external debts of the State is 42,289,206,109.84, making the grand total of debt left for the present administration N191,239,307,593.67.
Akpara said, “If Ikpeazu had the billions he claimed to have left behind for the Governor Otti led-government in April and May, why did he not pay workers and pensioners before leaving office?
“If Ikpeazu is trying to preempt anti corruption agencies by making such provocative false claims, he should know that the anti corruption agencies work with facts and figures, and even if the former Governor runs into the APC to seek refuge as he plans to do, these anti corruption agencies would pursue and bring him to justice from there”.