Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State
Abia Govt must account for spent World Bank funds – Opposition leader insists
[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]
Leader of the opposition in Abia, Hon. Obinna Ichita, says he will continue to monitor state road projects to ensure that they do not suffer the fate of Faulks Road.
Hon. Ichita, who is also the member representing Aba South State Constituency in the Abia House of Assembly, further added he would continue to mount pressure on the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration to account for $800 million it allegedly received from the World Bank under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) initiative to share to the masses.
In a statement he issued in Umuahia in reaction to an order of a State High Court restraining him from inquiring into how the government appropriated the money ($800 million) and another $56 million said to have been projected for reconstruction of four major roads in Aba.
Ichita who is a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said the government had denied receiving both funds but the state lawmaker insisted that he has forwarded evidence of their receipt to the court.
“We have forwarded our list of witnesses which include staff of Debt Management Office, senior federal government officials and agencies concerned and management staff of the bank that documented the loan transaction,” he said.
The Abia Opposition leader noted that since he filed his statement of defence with the list of witnesses, the government, its agents and lawyers, have refused to appear in court. “The matter was supposed to have come up on Friday 11 March 2022,” he added.
According to him, the matter seeking to oust him from inquiring into how the World Bank funds were used was instituted by the Commissioner for Youths, Mr Charles Onyedikachi, and the Abia State Coordinator of Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project, Mr Izuchukwu Onwughara, adding that the case has been adjourned to April 1, 2022.
“We are monitoring the road projects as well as the movement of the funds. We shall also continue to apply pressure on the government to ensure that those in the constituency do not suffer the fate of Faulks road,” he added.
It would be recalled that Faulks Road was one of the few roads tackled by the Ikpeazu administration in the early days of the government to create access to Ariaria International Market.
The government had said that the road was solidly built and that successive administrations would not spend resources attending to the same road in decades to come but the road failed last year and the government had to return to fix it again.
