• 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.”
In spite of the public outcry of poverty and poor state of infrastructure in Abia State, the Governor, Alex Otti has made a whopping budget of N5.8billion to purchase cars for himself and other top government officials.
According to a report by SaharaReporters, the governor made commitment to reposition the state and lift the people from poverty; but a review of the 2024 approved budget shows 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 N2.8 billion to the Office of the Governor for, “Purchase of motor vehicles for Government House/MDAs.”
The budget document also revealed that the governor allocated N1.5 billion to the Office of the Governor for, “Purchase of 2 number Toyota Hilux.”
However, he attributed the N1.5 billion budget for the purchase of the two Toyota Hilux allocated to the Governor’s Office to a software glitch generated by the Excel package used in preparing the budget document.
Otti claimed that the overall numbers of vehicles (two Toyota Hilux) are correct but the figure is not N1.5 billion but N150 million for two units of Hilux vans at N75 million each.
Media reports had quoted Otti as saying, “If you check N1.5 billion against N487 billion budget, that translates to about 0.3%, less than half percent of the total figure, and I believe that it is not that significant in determining the outcome. So even if the wrong number was carried down to the total, it wouldn’t have been material.
“But suffice it to say that anything that comes from the government must be correct. It is an error, and it has been corrected.
“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. The overall numbers are correct and the figure of N1.5 billion was actually N150 million; two units of Hilux vans at N75 million each will give you N150 million, that’s the correct number.”