The Abia State government has slammed the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, for comparing the performance of Governor Alex Otti with his two former predecessors, Theodore Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu.
Naijaonpoint reports that Deputy Speaker Kalu had on Sunday alleged that FAAC allocations coming to Abia has increased to between ₦38 billion and ₦40 billion per month when compared to about ₦4 billion that were received by the two previous Abia administrations that came before Governor Otti.
However, the Special Adviser to Governor Otti on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma dismissed the claim.
The government clarified that the allocation that accrued to both Abia State and the 17 LGAs of the state was ₦125 billion, not ₦304 billion.
Ekeoma said that the Deputy Speaker did not know much about economic and financial matters, arguing that the rise in cost of project execution under Otti was influenced by exchange rate difference as materials were bought with foreign currency.
“Abia’s 2025 Year to date FAAC allocation (8 months) including LGA, stands at 125 Billion Naira. Meanwhile, if we were to go by Kalu’s false claim of monthly sum of ₦38billion, it would have stood at ₦304billion,” Ekeoma said.
The Abia government equally accused Kalu of launching an unprovoked media attack on Otti because of his (Kalu’s) undeclared governorship ambition.
It further explained that core and non-core civil servants, which stood at 31,000 during the administration of former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, has now increased to about 67,000 following the abolishing of core and non-core civil servants by Governor Otti, adding that the figure excludes the newly recruited 5,349 teachers.
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