A support group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, alongside critical stakeholders from the state, has thrown its weight behind the resolve by the United States of America (USA) not to grant visas to corrupt public officials in the country.
The Convener of the Abians Best Interest Association (ABIA), Mr Eze Chikamnayo, at a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, called on the USA to live up to its promises since it is in the best interest of Nigeria.
Chikamnayo disclosed that the ABIA Interest Association has petitioned the Government of the USA, the United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany, China, Australia, Canada, Britain, Switzerland, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU) to deny Governor Alex Otti entry visas to the aforementioned countries in order to halt his frequent travels until he addresses issues regarding the usage of monies to build 51 smart schools and renovate several other schools in the state.
According to the stakeholders, in Abia State under Governor Otti, a whopping sum of N86 billion has been purportedly deployed for repairs of public schools in just about two years, with N78 billion completely paid out from the records available in the Abia State Budget Performance Report.
The stakeholders alleged that it is alarming that, despite such huge allocations and disbursements, and with almost two years gone by, there is no single new smart school project anywhere in Abia State as widely reported by the government.
The stakeholders claimed that the latest fact-finding visits to many public schools in Abia State still indicate that over 95 per cent of them remain in a state of severe neglect—with dilapidated buildings, unfenced compounds, and the absence of learning and teaching equipment.
They noted: “These troubling realities stand in stark contrast to the said expenditure recorded in the State Government Budget Performance Report which, as we earlier observed, is different from other financial inflows recorded under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and various Federal Intervention Programs.
“The failure and or refusal to publish the list, location, contractors, and pictures of the purported smart public school projects for which over N78 billion has now been spent between the 2nd quarter of 2023 and the 3rd quarter of 2025 is a clear indication of systemic corruption, impunity, lack of transparency, and accountability in governance.”
The stakeholders maintained that instead of providing empirical evidence of the 51 smart schools for which N54 billion was withdrawn as spent from the state coffers in the last quarter of 2024, the Governor Otti-led administration resorted to another diversionary tactic of misleading the unsuspecting public to believe that ASUBEB classroom projects being executed with Federal Government counterpart funding are the same as the missing smart schools.
