Abia airport fund: Governor Otti explains how N10 billion was diverted by former governor Ikpeazu.

Abia State governor, Alex Otti, has given insight to how N10b meant for the Abia airport project was diverted to individual company accounts, and promised to soon make public the forensic audit report which indicted the administration of former governor Okezie Ikpeazu in this regard.

The audit was conducted by KPMG.

Giving more clarification on the forensic audit report during his monthly media chat, tagged “Governor Alex Otti Speaks to Abians” held at Government House Umuahia, Otti said the immediate past administration transferred the N10b loan obtained from a commercial bank for the airport project into 32 different company accounts before it was shared, reports Sunday Sun.

He added that the money had already been transferred out of the state government account before they approached the Abia State House of Assembly for approval.

Otti stated that the denial of the former government officials was not unexpected, adding that instead of denying spending the fund, they claimed they used it for road construction, which was against the evidence available.

His words: “The management of the company (FEROTEX Construction Company) on which crest the airport loan was obtained, has admitted that the company never applied to be awarded the Airport Project under the administration of Dr Okezie Ikpeazu.

“It is a report by KPMG which says that they diverted the money. In the bank statement on September 26, 2020, when people were dealing with COVID-19, that a debit went into the state account for N10b and it was payment for 80 percent contract of the Abia airport.

“It’s true and incontrovertible. The statement is there,;the report is there. By the way the report will be published very soon. But I can assure you that as reported by the media, it’s KPMG that did the forensic audit.”

Explaining further, the governor said, “On October 13, and that’s almost three weeks after, a letter was written by the then governor to the House of Assembly requesting for approval of N10b for the construction of Abia airport. On October 14, one day after, a letter was written to the then governor giving him approval of the N10b that he required for the airport.

“So, clearly something went wrong. Our engagement with the company that received the money gives an impression that the company was deceived. The Managing Director of the company said that he told them that he has never built an airport before and that it is not his area of competence neither did he apply to them to construct an airport.

“So the people denying, the question for them is, how come money moved into an account of somebody who has said he neither sent in a bid for an airport nor has he the competence to construct an airport?

“According to him (the Managing Director), the then government asked him to move the monies elsewhere. He showed us letters from the then government to move the money in different tranches to 32 companies and that he did on the instruction of the former government.”

Otti maintained, however, that when the report would eventually be published, the rest of the work would be handled by security agencies, insisting also that his interest is for the money to be refunded rather than taking anyone to jail.

“The immediate past governor’s denial is not unexpected. When it was announced, they went to the media abusing the government and saying that the government lied.

“So, like I said, the rest of the work will be done by security agencies but what is important for our government is either that somebody is showing us the airport or somebody is returning our money. That is what is important to us. We are not interested in all the fire works and all the abuse. We are not even interested in anybody going to jail,” Otti said.