The Abia State Government under Alex Otti spent N1.5billion within three months on cars for members of the state House of Assembly, a copy of the state budget performance report seen by Akelicious has revealed.
The report titled “Abia State Third Quarter (July – September) 2024 Budget Performance”was posted on the state government’s website. (https://abiastate.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Abia-Q3-Budget-Performance-Report-FinalTeamIbe-CR-Final.pdf).
In the report, the Otti-led government spent a total of N1,845,912,500 on “Purchase of motor vehicles for members of Abia State Legislators and State Task Force Operations.” However, investigation by SaharaReporters revealed the governor handed over 15 units of 18 seater Innoson buses to the harmonised Taskforce across the urban centres in the state.
A check on various automobile websites revealed that each of the IVM 5000 buses is value at N23milllion, making 15 to be N345million. This showed that about N345 million was spent on vehicles for the Task Force team while the rest, N1.5 billion was used in purchase of vehicles for the lawmakers. The report also showed that only N299,811,959 million was spent by the government on repair of public schools in the state.
The governor has faced increasing criticism over lavish expenditures since his assumption of office. In February, a copy of the state’s 2024 approved budget published by Akelicious revealed that Otti’s administration planned to spend N1.5 billion for the purchase of “two number of Toyota Hilux”
