Abia State government has berated the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, for comparing Governor Alex Otti’s performance with his two former predecessors – Theodore Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu.
The government also said that total allocation that accrued to both Abia State and the 17 LGAs of the state was N125 billion, not N304 billion.
Deputy Speaker Kalu had on Sunday alleged that FAAC allocations coming to Abia has increased to between N38 billion and N40 billion per month when compered to about N4 billion that were received by the two previous Abia administrations that came before Governor Otti.
However, the Special Adviser to Governor Otti on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma said that the Deputy Speaker did not know much about economic and financial matters, arguing that the rise in cost of project execution under Otti was influenced by exchange rate difference as materials were bought with foreign currency.
“Abia’s 2025 Year to date FAAC allocation (8 months) including LGA, stands at 125 Billion Naira. Meanwhile, if we were to go by Kalu’s false claim of monthly sum of N38billion, it would have stood at N304billion,” Ekeoma said.
The Abia government equally accused Kalu of launching an unprovoked media attack on Otti because of his (Kalu’s) undeclared governorship ambition.
It further explained that core and non-core civil servants, which stood at 31,000 during the administration of former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, has now increased to about 67,000 following the abolishing of core and non-core civil servants by Governor Otti, adding that the figure excludes the newly recruited 5,349 teachers.
