Abia State governor, Alex Otti of Abia, has said that local government funds cannot be hijacked under his watch.

Mr Otti said this on Friday during the monthly media parley at Government House, Umuahia.

The governor said that he was intentional about ensuring that funds meant for the local governments would be utilised to facilitate balanced socioeconomic growth in Abia.

He said, “Local government funds cannot be hijacked under my watch and if you see what is happening in the local governments, you will know that the funds are working. So anybody who says funds have been hijacked needs to tell us who hijacked the funds and we can now begin to pursue the hijackers. But to the best of my knowledge, it is impossible to hijack funds under my watch.”

Mr Otti also said that the state government had developed a robust strategy to reposition education in Abia.

He added, “We have looked at the curricula, teaching staff, the infrastructures and we are in the process of enumerating the civil servants we can redeploy to the schools.’’

Mr Otti said that the government was making concerted efforts to make the teaching profession attractive.

He also said that the government had commenced its retrofitting programme in 171 primary schools and 54 secondary schools to upgrade the selected schools to be of high quality standard.

He added, “We have what we call the minimum standard. If you get into a primary school that we have touched you will understand. There are facilities that must be there in the schools such as libraries, laboratories, hostels, and principals’ quarters among others.” 

He further said that his administration had been able to cut down the cost of governance by ensuring that only absolutely necessary expenditures were undertaken by the government.

Mr Otti said: “It’s tough but we have to do it. We have been managing our expenditures in such a way that we are able to live within our means as much as possible.”

According to him, at the time his predecessor took over, the state owed N34.5 million and as at the time he took over, the debt had risen to over N192.2 million.

He expressed dismay that the funds could not be accounted for.

Mr Otti said that some of the debts had already been paid off because they were commercial bank overdrafts at high interest rates.

He said that since he became governor, he had always ensured that security vote was judiciously utilised in enhancing security in Abia.

Mr Otti added that security remains top priority in the state government’s agenda because of its role in development. 

(NAN)