Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti says his administration will not be deterred in its determination to prosecute civil servants suspected to have engaged in pension fraud in the state.
This is as he announced that arrangements have reached advanced stage for his administration to introduce electric vehicles for intra and inter city transportation before the end of this year.
Targeted cities are Umuahia, Aba and Ohafia.
Announcing this on Thursday during his November 2024 media chat with newsmen, tagged "Dr Alex Otti Speaks to Abians", at Government House, Umuahia, the governor said the measure is to cushion the effects of removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government as well as to reduce the pains the removal has inflicted on lifestyles of the populace.
Governor Otti used the forum to clear a number of false information being spread by the opposition on the state's finances.
He disclosed that on assumption of office he inherited a huge debt profile of N191.2 billion from past regime. Out of that, he informed the public that he has been able to defray about N90 billon from May 29, 2023 till date.
According to Otti, so far, his administration has not borrowed a Kobo from anywhere or any individual to run the affairs of the state.
“In spite of that, I have sustained regular payment of salaries, emoluments and pensions to civil and public servants as well as to pensioners; continued to fix roads, provide quality healthcare, renovate and upgrade schools, tackle security among others. I only call on all of you to remain steadfast with this administration for us to succeed by moving Abia to another level.”
On those civil servants who have been stealing government money, Otti vowed to prosecute those suspected to be involved in the reported pension fund fraud scheme recently discovered in some government ministries.
He declared that government would continue with its efforts to sanitize the civil service and maintained his zero tolerance for corruption, pointing out that the 10 or 11 civil servants being fingered as constituting the pension fraud syndicate have been identified, some of them arrested and will be charged to court this week.
His words: "We continued with our efforts to sanitize the civil service. I'm sure you would have heard some reports about the 11 civil servants who were involved in pension fraud.
"We are continuing with their prosecution. I have authorized that in the next few days, they should be arraigned before the court to come and tell us how come they were stealing from the state.
"From the report I got, about there are ten or eleven of them. Some of them are outside the country. We are going to repatriate them to answer to their sins."
Governor Otti said it was unfortunate that some members of the opposition were brazenly castigating government on air over the decision to arrest the suspects and assured that government was not going back on its decision no matter who is involved.
"We can't tolerate that kind of corruption. No matter who is involved, people who are defending thieves should be perceived and treated like thieves too. So, we are issuing a warning. There is a limit to opposition."
Answering a question on the new Minimum wage introduced in the state recently, Otti hinted that he has gotten reports that there are some mistakes arising from the implementation, saying that he has directed the Accountant-General of the State and the Commissioner for Finance to look at the errors noticed in the payment of the new minimum wage and correct them accordingly.
"We received a few reports that there were some errors, some computation issues and I have directed the Accountant-General and the Commissioner for Finance to sit down and look at it and correct those errors so that we don't have complaints coming from there," Gov. Otti stated.
The Governor said that work would soon start at the 200 primary healthcare centres in the three Senatorial zones of the State, saying that the whole idea is to provide quality, affordable and accessible healthcare for all.
"Very soon, you will see that work will start in the primary healthcare centres. By the time we are done with the 200, we will move to another 200 until we touch every primary healthcare centre in the State," he said.
"At the same time, the 22 secondary healthcare centres are receiving attention step-by- step. We are not stopping at that. We are also working hard to ensure that we attract the right personnel".
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