Abia State Government yesterday said that its financial profile is not in a healthy state, following the several denials by former Governor Theodore Orji that his administration left a reasonable amount of funds in the state coffers at the end of his tenure, as the new government is insisting that it met an empty treasury as well as inheriting huge debts from the past administration.
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr. Godwin Adindu, who revealed this at the Government House, Umuahia, recently during a chat with newsmen, noted that the financial recklessness of the past administration appears to be putting clog in the wheels of the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration.
“The governor is yet to settle down; there is no funds to work with. Ikpeazu inherited a government that was in a mess, huge debts here and there and that was why the governor sought for the N30 billion loan facilities to execute some of his capital projects,” Adindu said.
The CPS had in a press release July said that report from the Debt Management Office (DMO) Abuja indicated that Abia State, is among the least indebted states in the country on both local and foreign loans, further said that the messy financial situation has contributed to the delay in the payment of salary backlogs as promised the civil servants during campaigns.
This revelation by Adindu, contradicts his earlier position on the immediate past administration of T.A Orji, which he had praised for his visionary leadership which he said has stabilised Abia State. “Apart from servicing debts incurred by the former administration, the new government has commenced a large-scale programme of correcting the excesses of the past administration.
“This saw to the birth of many social-welfarist programme like the Ochendo Youth Empowerment Programme, which transformed Abia into a yellow state; the Hannah May Foundation, the pet humanitarian programme of the first lady; the student bursary Scheme and the student free city buses,” Adindu said.
