GOV. OTTI MOVES TO RESOLVE ISSUES IMPEDING COMMENCEMENT OF ABSIID PROJECTS.

Abia State Governor, His Excellency, Dr Alex Otti, OFR, has moved to resolve with immediate effect, all issues impeding the commencement of the Abia State Integrated Infrastructural development (ABSIID) projects to enable acceleration of the projects across the State of which 2 billion Naira counterpart fund has been paid.

Governor Otti was speaking on Tuesday, March 24th,  while receiving a delegation of the Federal Ministry of Finance and African Development Bank, who came to explore and discuss the best way to accelerate ABSIID projects in the State.

While assuring that there will be immediate action to ensure the State makes progress in the project, Governor Otti directed his Chief of Staff to become part of the team and ensure a weekly report is given to him.

Gov. Otti disagreed with the plans to flag-off the project by the middle of the year and insisted that, it should be flagged-off by April as the Ministry of Finance was not the problem but information gap as he was not updated.

“Everything that needs to be done from our side, should be done, it’s not finance. Finance (Ministry) doesn’t have anything to do with it at this stage. That’s why they are not in this meeting.

“Thank you once again for this visit. I really appreciate it and if you didn’t come, I wouldn’t know that the problem is us. So, we are going to solve this problem.

“And you are talking of flag-off in the middle of the year. No,
Whatever it takes, we must flag-off in April.

“So, it’s not in our best interest that we are not making progress. So, I can assure you that from now on, you will see progress.

“So, I’m going to sit with them (ABSIID officials), and we are going to resolve all these issues. They are non-issues, we can deal with them. We want to start, latest by April,

“Nobody knows when the rains will come, and nobody knows how long the rains are going to be. So, whatever be the case, let’s just start,” Gov. Otti stated.

Governor Otti, appreciated Mrs. Akande’s passion for the success of the project, regretting that he has not been getting the right information and situational report about the project.

“Clearly, I have not been getting the right messages and the right situational report. I have been asking, and then all the report I got was that the problem is with ABSIID, the Federal Ministry, the Bank.

“I shouldn’t be hearing some of these things, because clearly, we’ve not done very well in giving feedback. In fact, at some point, I was wishing and I said, the rains will soon return. So, we’ve lost the whole of the dry season.

“Because I know clearly that once you have paid the counterpart fund, which we have paid, you can go to sleep,” Gov. Otti stated.

Earlier in her speech, the leader of the delegation and representative of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr Mrs Oyebola Akande while  commending Governor Otti for the timely release of 2 Billion Naira counterpart funding for the project, said that their mission is to see how they can team up with the State government and their financing partners to accelerate the implementation of the project without further delay.

“So, our mission here today is to see how we can accelerate this project. The State has a role to play, the Federal government has a role to play, while the bank also has a role to play.” Mrs Akande stated.

She stressed the need for the State team to fasttrack the process, having lost 2 years out of the 5 years implementation timeframe for the project, calling for the Governor’s intervention to reduce the bureaucratic bottlenecks impeding the acceleration of the project in the State Ministry of Finance.

Also, the representative of African Development Bank Sheila Akyza said that their overall interest is to work with the State government and ensure that the project is facilitated and implemented as soon as possible for the benefit of the people of the State, describing the project as one of the best gifts attracted by Governor Alex Otti for the State.

The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, Ph.D, and the Commissioner for Works, Engr. Otumchere Oti were present at the meeting.