Abia: Group petitions EFCC, ICPC, UNESCO over N54bn schools renovation

Otti

A group within the All Progressives Congress APC, under the aegis of Abia Best Interest Association ABIA, has petitioned multiple anti-corruption agencies and the United Nations over what it described as the suspicious handling of N54 billion allocated for schools renovation project by the Governor Alex Otti’s administration.

The group said it had submitted formal complaints to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ICPC, the National Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the World Bank, Transparency International, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, among others. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, APC chieftain and convener of the group, Eze Chikamnayo, Esq., alleged that the Otti administration had failed to provide accountability for the funds.

He said; “The failure or refusal to publish the list, location, contractors and pictures of the purported 51 public school projects for which over 54 billion naira has been spent between the first and fourth quarter of 2024 by Alex Otti’s administration is indicative of systemic corruption, impunity, lack of transparency and accountability in governance.”

Chikamnayo expressed concern that despite the huge allocations, no visible smart school project had been executed nearly two years into the current administration.

“Furthermore, our fact finding visits to many public schools in Abia State indicate that over 95 percent of them remain in a state of severe neglect— with dilapidated buildings, unfenced compounds, together with absence of learning and teaching equipment.

“These troubling realities stand in stark contrast to the said expenditure recorded in the State Government Budget Performance Report which is different from other financial inflows recorded under the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC and various Federal Intervention Programmes.”

The group said it had already written to anti-graft agencies, civil society organizations and international watchdogs to demand transparency from the Abia government.