The Peoples Democratic Party, Abia State chapter has challenged the Governor of the State, Alex Ottio to set up an Independent Technical Panel to verify extend of work done by his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu.
In a statement made available to IGBERE TV by Hon. Elder Abraham Amah, Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary said this is necessary their attention was drawn to a statement credited to Alex Otti during a recent media chat wherein he was quoted as saying, among other things, that “Ikpeazu spent N10bn on Port Harcourt Road without working on it. The only achievement was breaking people’s houses”.
He said the statement represents a new low in the execution of Alex Otti’s agenda of running his government via propaganda and does not present any fact regarding the Port Harcourt Road Aba project that was started by the Ikpeazu administration.
According to him, “in order to put an end to the above falsehood and other lies being propagated by Otti and his administration to deceive gullible members of the public we hereby propose that an independent technical verification panel that would include engineers from the federal ministry of works, from the Otti and Ikpeazu administrations as well as certified project auditors be established to verify the following:”
1. That the Port Harcourt Road was awarded to HARTLAND NIG LTD, at the cost of #9,882,752,246.4 (Nine Billion, Eight hundred and Eighty Two Million, Seven Hundred and fifty Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Fourty Six Naira Fourty Kobo) only.
2. That the total length of the road awarded for dualization in 2017 is 5.9km.
3. That the Ikpeazu administration implemented a total of 13.5km of drains (representing both sides of the road) along the road through Hartland Construction Company that was awarded the original contract.
4. Review and verify documents showing how much the Ikpeazu administration paid so far to Hartland Construction Company in lieu of the project.
5. Ascertain if the dredged Umuagbai and Uratta ponds to receive storm water from Port Harcourt Road is still standing or not.
6. Ascertain and publish the scope of the current more than N30bn work awarded to Julius Berger without due process and competitive bidding as well as budgetary approval by the State House of Assembly if any.
7. Ascertain and publish the relevant designs and cost of contract awarded by the Ikpeazu administration as well as work already done and the design and scope of the over N30bn project awarded to Julius Berger by Alex Otti.
8. Measure and confirm the total length of the road from Ngwa Road junction to Asa Nnentu Junction.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Ikpeazu administration never spent anything near the Otti propaganda sum of N10bn on the 5.9km Port Harcourt Road, Aba and we challenge Otti to
publish documentary proof of his false claims or forever hide his face in shame for consistently trying to deceive the people of the state and country with false claims.”
” We continue to wonder why a government will prefer to embark on constant falsehood with so much audacity rather than focus on delivering on dividends of democracy to the people as it promised during election campaigns.”
“The good people of Abia are at liberty to go to the site and see the drainage or check the Umuagbai and Uratta works and also confirm the earth works done from Uratta Junction to No. 1 Port Harcourt Road section of the road. Even videos produced by the propaganda team of Alex Otti when they visited the road in April 2023 showed the drains and other works done, yet the Governor was not restrained by these facts to tell such brazen lies before journalists that have also visited the place at different times.”
“Furthermore, we challenge Alex Otti to make available the humongous “compensation” purportedly set aside in the Julius Berger version of the project to the affected people rather than attempt to pocket same.”
“If Otti does not accept our challenge of setting up an independent technical panel to ascertain the state of the project, let it be known that every word uttered by the Governor and his team should never be believed by any reasonable person who is interested in facts and not farce.”
“We call on the good people of Abia to disregard to tissues of lies bandied around by Alex Otti and his media team concerning the Port Harcourt Road project and understand that the project had been 40 per cent delivered by the Ikpeazu administration.”
