Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) has condemned the looting spree that marked the end of the immediate past administration in Abia State.
Development Diaries reports that the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, had accused the immediate past administration of Okezie Ikpeazu of looting properties of the state.
Following his inauguration as governor, Otti ordered the freezing of all bank accounts belonging to the government and its agencies.
He also dissolved all boards of agencies and parastatals of the state government, with immediate effect.
The governor alleged that vehicles and other equipment purchased with public funds were removed from the Aba General Hospital, School of Health Technology Aba, Abia State Universal Basic Education Board, School of Nursing, Amachara, and Abia State Government, Umuahia.
However, Ikpeazu denied the allegations, describing them as senseless.
‘Already the infrastructure gap in Abia is deficit and huge, requiring therefore that no single attention be diverted to official looting of public property and equipment. Already, Abia treasury looks lean, so what use is looting of public properties in health institutions, government offices and departments’, FENRAD said in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Nelson Nwafor.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that Abia State has the worst indices of development. For instance, while the national unemployment rate is 33 percent, Abia’s rate is 51 percent. And with regard to poverty, its rate is 31 percent.
FENRAD called on Governor Otti to, in the economic interest of the state, go the extra mile in meeting out due punitive measures on the perpetrators of this act.
‘The foundation also wishes to use this medium to urge that activities of certain headmasters and headmistresses be reviewed. This call follows as a result of the lawless and reckless conversion of schools and public buildings to repurposed religious centres and churches’, the statement added.
It also called on all the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and various permanent secretaries to work in the interest of the state towards achieving stability in fiscal and financial policies.
Photo source: Segun Fodeke
