The Abia State Government under Alex Otti spent N1.5billion within three months on cars for members of the state House of Assembly, a copy of the state budget performance report seen by SaharaReporters has revealed.
The report titled “Abia State Third Quarter (July – September) 2024 Budget Performance”was posted on the state government’s website. (https://abiastate.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Abia-Q3-Budget-Performance-Report-FinalTeamIbe-CR-Final.pdf).
In the report, the Otti-led government spent a total of N1,845,912,500 on “Purchase of motor vehicles for members of Abia State Legislators and State Task Force Operations.” However, investigation by SaharaReporters revealed the governor handed over 15 units of 18 seater Innoson buses to the harmonised Taskforce across the urban centres in the state.
A check on various automobile websites revealed that each of the IVM 5000 buses is value at N23milllion, making 15 to be N345million. This showed that about N345 million was spent on vehicles for the Task Force team while the rest, N1.5 billion was used in purchase of vehicles for the lawmakers. The report also showed that only N299,811,959 million was spent by the government on repair of public schools in the state.
The governor has faced increasing criticism over lavish expenditures since his assumption of office. In February, a copy of the state’s 2024 approved budget published by SaharaReporters revealed that Otti’s administration planned to spend N1.5 billion for the purchase of “two number of Toyota Hilux”.
However, the governor after the report attributed the N1.5 billion budget to a software glitch generated by the Excel package used in preparing the budget document. A further analysis of the 2024 approved budget of the Abia State government had also revealed that Otti allocated the sum of N5,845,000,000 for purchase of cars for himself, commissioners, permanent secretary, judiciary and Government House/MDAs.
In February this year (2024), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the poverty index of Abia State stood at 30 percent, meaning that 30 percent of people of the state are living in multi-dimensional poverty.
Earlier this month, SaharaReporters reported how residents and business owners within and around Nkwo Ngwa market in Aba, Abia State, lamented and berated Governor Otti over their flooded bad road.
The residents and business owners had accused Governor Alex Otti’s administration of engaging in social media propaganda to hype his administration while “he is only patching roads constructed by the previous government.”
However, despite the public outcry of poverty and poor state of infrastructure in the state, and the Governor’s promised commitment to reposition the state and lift the people of the state from poverty, a review of the 2024 approved budget revealed that Governor Otti allocated the sum of N1,545,000,000 to the Office of the Governor for, “Purchase of vehicle for commissioners, Judiciary and Permanent Secretary.”
Also, he allocated a total sum of N2.8 billion to the Office of the Governor for, “Purchase of motor vehicles for Government House/ MDAS.”
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