With the commissioning of the Aba Geometric Power at Osisioma by President Bola Tinubu, the media space in Abia State have been taken over by the raging verbal battle between loyalists to the former Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu and those of the current Governor, Alex Otti.
At the heart of this heated media war is the alleged 5% stake which the aides and close associates of the former governor claimed was acquired by Okezie Ikpeazu in the Aba Geometrics Power project, on behalf of the Abia State government.
According Ikpeazu’s allies, which include John Okiyi Kalu, Onyebuchi Ememanka, Enyinnaya Appolos, Chinonye Mba, and more recently, Don Ubani, the Otti administration should confirm the said investment.
The argument by the Ikpeazu side claims that the Abia State government during the time of the Obingwa-born former governor, acquired a 5% stake in the Aba Geometrics Project which was worth $5m with about $3.6m allegedly already paid, which represents about 71% in payment.
Ikpeazu’s supporters also knocked the Abia State government as well as the Chairman of Geometrics, Professor Barth Nnaji for allegedly discrediting the Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration and not recognizing the roles it played in the power project while he was in charge of the State.
They claimed that the investment was made with Abia people’s money and should be protected.
Also, a former Commissioner for information and also former Commissioner for trade and investment in Abia State under Ikpeazu, John Okiyi Kalu, while writing on his Facebook page, claimed that the State government awarded a 9.0km road contract that connects Abiriba to Etitiama Nkporo, even when such road had already been done and handed over to the communities by the previous administration of Okezie Ikpeazu.
He went on to challenge the Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on recovery of government properties and funds to thoroughly investigate the alleged Abia State government investment in the Aba Geometric Power project.
However in reaction to the claims made by the Ikpeazu supporters, media aides to Governor Alex Otti dismissed the alleged investments in Geometrics, stating that no documents about such investments were handed over to Otti by Ikpeazu.
Governor Otti’s defence team is made up of Ferdinand Ekeoma, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dodoh Okafor, Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Communications, among others.
Ekeoma stated: “At this point, we do not have any document, any information. So, as long as we do not have any document, what it implies is that to the best of our knowledge, such does not exist.”
He went on to accuse Ikpeazu of ordering his former and serving aides to attack the Otti administration, alleging that the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was jealous of achievements already recorded by Governor Alex Otti in the Geometric power project.
He knocked Ikpeazu’s administration and aides for allegedly engaging in “primitive propaganda and rehearsed image laundering” for their boss.
Ekeoma went on to recall how property belonging to the people of Abia State, were destroyed at Port Harcourt road in Aba by the Ikpeazu administration without compensation, stating that those who brought pain to the people cannot distract Governor Otti.
Stepping into the matter during an interview with Channels TV last week, Governor Otti revealed that he was aware of the ongoing arguments surrounding the alleged 5% investment which the Abia State government supposedly made in the Geometric power project.
When asked to expand on Ikpeazu’s roles in Geometric project, Otti stated that it was difficult for him to say, but confirmed that he was aware that Ikpeazu joined the Geometric management team to South Africa sometime in 2018 or 2019 to sign a loan agreement of about $50m part of which was used to settle the dispute between Geometric and EEDC.
He however stated that the records available to him did not show that the government guaranteed that loan insisting that the loan was given at the back of the assets of Geometric.
The Governor pointed out that he did not have any document concerning the alleged 5% investment, insisting that no such document was handed over to him.
He however revealed that he had directed his Commissioner for finance and the Accountant General to go through the state financial records and find out if there was any truth to the alleged 5% equity investment in the power company, pointing out that Geometric was in the better position to respond specifically to the argument.
