Only Mr Otti, the self-styled astute banker, seems not to know that states have long been stopped from borrowing from commercial banks at the prevailing double digits interest rates… Enyinnaya Appolos Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu state the facts.

The Chief Press Secretary while reacting to Mr Otti’s assertion said that “A review of the contents of the document he circulated reveals a man who is either plain ignorant or full of deceit, as the press release contained outright lies, half-truths, contradictions and conjectures.”

Enyinnaya further described Mr Otti as an “acclaimed misinformer”, who wrote that Abia State Government received N5.3b Paris fund refund and Mr Obinna Oriaku the Abia State Commissioner for Finance told the citizens that he needed N700m to clear outstanding salaries and pensions.

Enyinnaya went ahead to reveal that “while the statement is expected from an unreal character who spreads misinformation as a hobby, it is important to state that when the state received the first tranche of Paris Club refunds totaling N10.6b, the Governor approached the state house of assembly to approve the investment of 50% of the funds on outstanding salaries, as suggested by the presidency, with the remaining 50% allocated to infrastructure development projects. It was on that basis that the state house of assembly approved the following expenditure in December 2016. The details are as follows: N5.3 billion on Salary arrears and pensions, N1.7 billion for road construction projects, N2.5 billion on bridges, N685 million on Hospital projects and N200 million for street lighting projects.

Labour leaders later approached the Governor to add N700m to the allocated N5.3b to ensure that the available funds are spread to more units of the state's civil service, and the Governor graciously accepted. At no time did either Labour or the Commissioner for Finance claim that the N700m was what was needed to clear all outstanding.

As at today, all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) in Abia State, constituting more than 70% of the state workforce, have received July salaries. Given that we are currently in August, it should be noted that more than 70% of the state's workforce are 100% on salaries. Yet there are still challenges that were not met with the received funds. The already issued payment mandates were not enough to cover the following salary arrears within the state workforce: primary school teachers still have 2 months’ salary outstanding while secondary schools teachers have 3 months. Local Government workers have 2 months outstanding with 5 months for pensioners while state pensioners have 6 months outstanding.

When the state applied for the second tranche of Paris club refunds, it was calculated that based on verifiable figures the state will receive a minimum of N15b. Given the available data that showed that outstanding salary and pensions stood at around N13b, the Governor who was eager and committed to paying off all workers outstanding declared without prompting that once the inflows, expected before end of July 2017, is received his government will clear all the outstanding salaries and pensions.

Sadly, the Federal Government only released N5.715b to Abia State with the balance still expected. Yet eager to do the greatest good to the greatest number of workers, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu directed the Labour-dominated committee to apply all the received money to payment of salary and pension arrears. Whereas the federal government recommended that states apply 70% to salary/pension outstanding and 30% to infrastructure development projects.”