The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, has said the State was left in a very bad shape by his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu.
Otti said this when he appeared on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Thursday while responding to a question on how he met the state when he assumed office in May, 2023.
“Absolutely, very, very bad shape, but I am not complaining. I have folded my sleeves and I am just dealing with what I met here,” Otti, who was elected on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, said.
He wondered what his predecessor used the money he borrowed for, since there is nothing to show for it.
“My worry is not really about debt, it is about what the debt is used for. If you inherited a debt profile of N34.4 billion by May 29, 2015 and eight years later you ran that debt to about N192.2 billion; I really can’t see anything that you have done with the money, salaries were not being paid, pensioners were being owed, infrastructure was decaying, the place got into ruins, schools were run down completely, hospitals were dilapidated.
“So, the issue is where did the money go? If I am going to take debt, it is going to go into regenerative expenditure. But when you are taking loans and you are running the state into debt, just for consumption, you are not investing in the state; you are not paying salaries; that’s actually what I was talking about,” he said.