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Alex Otti Takes Firm Stance On Corruption, Vows To Reclaim State’s Assets
Eko Hot Blog reports that Abia State Governor, Alex Otti has vowed to take decisive action against all individuals found guilty of embezzling public funds and unlawfully possessing government assets in the State.
This is even as he has assured that his administration would disconnect the mouths of more looters of public funds and property from the ‘feeding bottle’ of the State.
Otti made the vow in Umuahia during a thanksgiving service of the Deputy Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Austin Okezie Meregini, held at St. Ann’s Catholic Church.
He explained that various changes he had made so far in the State’s civil service and the dissolution of various Boards in the State were geared towards rebuilding Abia, and vowed that every stolen public fund and property would be recovered through the recently inaugurated Panel of Inquiry.
His words:
“It is also not uncommon for you to be hearing people wailing and crying; that is expected because for the past 24 years, some people had put their mouths on the feeding bottle and since we came we removed their mouths.
“There may be a few people whose mouths we have not seen and that is why we have the Panel. We will fish out those people and remove their mouths from the feeding bottle.”
Otti said that public funds and property should be used for the good of the people, not to be cornered by a corrupt few.
“The feeding bottle is for all of us. So anytime that happens, you will hear them screaming, ‘the man is undemocratic, the man wants to spoil the State’. We have not come to spoil, we have come to rebuild.
“So, if the rebuilding tastes like spoiling to them, we can’t understand but we cannot sympathize with them,” Otti thundered, to the cheering of Church members.
He advised Abians not to lose sleep as his policies were designed for their own good.
Earlier in his speech, the Deputy Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Austin Okezie Meregini thanked God and his people for his victory during the election and for his eventual emergence as Deputy Speaker.
It would be recalled that Governor Otti had set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry, charging it to recover alleged stolen government property from people who served in the previous administrations in the state.
A statement issued by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof Kenneth Kalu, named Justice Florence Ikwuoma Duruoha-Igwe of the State High Court Umuahia as the chairman of the panel.
Other members of the panel, according to the SSG, are Prof Ogwo Ekeoma Ogwo, Mazi Ugochukwu Okoroafor, Rev Fr Alex Okonkwo and Prof Ursula Ngozi Akanwa.
His administration has so far sacked several appointees of the immediate past administration, including permanent secretaries.
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