Commissioners in the camp of Nyesom Wike, are once again throwing in the towel in what signals a fresh mass exodus from the government of Siminalayi Fubara, similar to the situation last year, when the feud between the two camps was festering, before the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, which led to them to return to their positions.

The current situation is a fallout of the escalation of hostilities since last week, when the two camps picked up the gauntlets to do battle once again, with the governor being on the offensive this time, including threatening to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate his predecessor, now, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

Following in the footstep of Zaccheaus Adangor, former Attorney General of the State and Commissioner for Justice (AGS-CoJ), a known Wike supporter, who resigned last week, Chinedu Mmom, Gift Worlu, Jacobson Nbina, and Austen Ben-Chioma, Commissioners for Education, Housing, Transport and the Environment, respectively, all among the nine commissioners who had previously resigned in the heat of the political crisis in the state before Tinubu’s intervention, threw in their resignation letter on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Fubara, had upped the ante, describing Wike as a rat eating from the bag of garri in the state, accusing him of leaving a huge debt burden for him, adding that time had come to open a can of worms the former governor left behind.

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“I write to formally tender my resignation as a member of the Rivers State Executive Council as the Commissioner for Education with effect from today, May 15, 2024. It is a truism that a calm, safe, and friendly environment would stimulate efficient service delivery and enhanced productivity. It is, however, unfortunate to note that my current workspace has become toxic and no longer guarantees a favourable environment to enable me to realise my set targets for the education sector in the state.

“There is loss of trust, animosity and sharp division among colleagues in the same cabinet which is unhealthy and very unfortunate. I want to thank Your Excellency for the opportunity to serve in your cabinet and wish your administration well,” Mmom, wrote in his letter of resignation to the State Government (SSG), Tammy Danagogo.

Ben-Chioma, wrote: “I hereby tender my resignation as the Commissioner for Environment, Rivers State, on this day, May 15, 2024. I want to sincerely appreciate Your Excellency for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the State Executive Council.

“My decision to resign is due to the political crisis befalling our dear Rivers State and other personal reasons. It was a privilege to have been of service to you in your administration and wish you all the best in your tenure.”

Worlu’s letter dated May 15, read: “I write to resign my appointment as the Commissioner for Housing formally. One of the most difficult decisions in my life yet, it is precipitated by the toxic atmosphere that has characterised our working relationship, especially the smouldering arbitrariness of decisions and actions, including the attempt to fuse the executive and legislative arms of government in Rivers State.

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“I thank you for the opportunity to serve in your government and wish you the best as you continue to steer the ship of state. Kindly accept the assurances of my esteemed regards.”

Again, the Federal Government, on Wednesday, warned against the dangers of reversing the recent increase in the tariff of electricity supply for Band A customers in the country, saying any such move would derail the reform agenda of the President Bola Tinubu administration for the power sector.

Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power,  who made the revelation, told State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (EFC) meeting at the Aso Villa in Abuja, that Nigerians must either choose to move forward or backwards in the power sector, adding that the vision of the President, was to get the country out of its current doldrums.

Adelabu, who spoke against the backdrop of the insistence of Organised Labour for a return to the previous regime, which made its members led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union of Nigeria (TUC) to picket the offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and distribution companies otherwise known as DisCos, on Monday, said: “A lot of them (protesting) are paying below N60 so they still enjoy government’s subsidy. So when they say we should reverse the recently increased tariff, sincerely it’s not affecting them. That’s one position.

“My appeal again is that they should please not derail or distract our transformation plan for the industry. We have a clearly documented reform roadmap to take us to our desired destination, where we’re going to have reliable, functional, cost-effective and affordable electricity in Nigeria. It cannot be achieved overnight because this is a decay of almost 60 years, which we are trying to correct.

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“Nobody promised us or assured us that the road will be smooth. We knew it’s going to be rough, but we must weather the storm, which is going to be temporary. It’s a lot of sacrifice from everybody; from the government’s side, from the people’s side, from the private sector side. So we must bear this sacrifice for us to have a permanent gain.

“I don’t want us to go back to the situation we were in February and March, where we had very low generation. We all felt the impact of this whereby electricity supply was very low and every household, every company, every institution, felt it. From the little reform that we’ve embarked upon since the beginning April, we have seen the impact that electricity has improved and it can only get better. So I’m appealing to everybody that one should not toy with this before that we have embarked upon, we are aiming somewhere and we will achieve it.”

On April 3, 2024, NERC raised electricity tariff for customers enjoying 20 hours power supply daily. Customers in this category are said to be under the Band A classification. The increase saw the customers paying N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66, a development that has been heavily criticised by many Nigerians, considering the immediacy of the tariff hike and the current hardship in the land.

Following the outrage, NERC asked discos to cut down electricity tariff rate by 8.1% for customers under Band A category. The outrage, however, persisted with many Nigerians rejecting the reduction and demanding a total reversal of the tariff hike. The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) subsequently picketed NERC offices and discos on Monday to press home their demands.

Specifically referring to the position of the workers, he said: “The first question was about the recent Labour unions’ peaceful protest with regards to the recently increased tariffs for Band A customers in Nigeria’s electricity supply industry. Let me first make it abundantly clear that we are in democracy so there are fundamental human rights. I cannot deny people their rights.

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“It’s the right of the Labour to protest peacefully and to come up with their demands, from the perspective they saw what we did. It is clearly allowed, it is legitimate and it is understandable. So we cannot stop them from organising a peaceful protest or laying down their demands. Let me make that clear. President Bola Tinubu’s administration is also a listening government.

“We have heard the demands, we’re going to look at it, we’ll make further engagements and I believe we’re going to reach a peaceful resolution with the Labour because no government can succeed without the cooperation, collaboration and partnership with the Labour unions. So, we welcome the peaceful protest and I’m happy that it was not a violent protest. They’ve made their positions known and government has taken in their demands and we’re looking at it.

“But one thing that I want to state here is from the statistics of those affected by the hike in tariff, the people on the road yesterday (on Monday), who embarked on the peaceful protests, more than 95 per cent of them are not affected by the increase in the tariff of electricity.

“They still enjoy almost 70 per cent government subsidy in the tariff they pay because the average costs of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity is not less than N180 today. A lot of them are paying below N60 so they still enjoy government’s subsidy. So when they say we should reverse the recently increased tariff, sincerely it’s not affecting them. That’s one position.”

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Nothing short of immediate apologies from Alex Otti, Abia State Governor to Okezie Ikpeazu, his predecessor, is likely to assuage the angst of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who for the umpteenth time, has called out the governor over the claim that Ikpeazu pocketed the N10billion billed for the once proposed Abia Airport, among other allegations of official malfeasances.

The party, is insisting on the apology, as it claims that it has now been discovered that there was actually no Forensic Audit, of the finances of the state under Ikpeazu, as Otti claimed last month while visiting the US, where he made startling revelations about massive official sleaze by his predecessor, during an address to the indigenes.

Otti, had on Friday, April 19, 2024, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in the United States of America told his audience: “Talking about corruption, I had set up a forensic audit as soon as I took over office in Abia, last year (2023). So that there won’t be any argument, I called in one of the top three audit firms in the world, and not too long ago, they turned in their report, and some of the things in their report are frightening.

“So, some N9.3 billion was paid to seven contractors for contracts that were not executed at all up till today. Another N15.9 billion (N16 billion) was paid to 63 contractors with no supporting documents anywhere in the state. Another N12 billion was paid to two contractors for contracts that do not exist, out of this figure N10 billion was on September 25, 2020, paid to a contractor for the construction of the Abia State Airport.

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“We have spent time trying to locate the airport and up till now have not been able to locate it… So, as we continue to look for our airport, we have also told the security agencies to help us search. When you juxtapose that with pensions that were lying unpaid for about 10 years and the salary arrears, just one of these headings, the N10 billion that was spent to build a non-existent airport, was exactly the amount of money our government used to take off the pension arrears.”

Ikpeazu himself and his political camp, had made strident efforts to deny the allegation, saying it came out of Otti’s penchant to be nosing around all corners in search of anything to rope the former governor in, regardless of the incredulity and futility of the effort, due to his unhidden hatred for him, urging him to face real governance instead of lying to the people.

The PDP, which had since joined in the war of words, upped the ante on Tuesday, once again expressing what it termed “deep concern and disappointment over the use of language by Alex Otti to drag the former PDP administration of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu to the mud, and confuse the good people of Abia State, especially when such motives are purely political, unwarranted and totally unnecessary.”

In a statement by Abraham Amah PDP Vice Chairman of the party in the state and regretted that the state had been trending for the wrong reasons in the last three weeks, since the governor’s claim that a certain forensic audit exposed how Ikpeazu frittered away a whopping N107billion out of which N10billion proposed for Abia Airport, grew wings.

The PDP said it had discovered that there was actually a report produced by KPMG, a renowned global audit firm, but that it was nothing near a forensic report, but simply titled a Provisions of Financial Process Review for Abia State Government, where the firm even stated in clear terms in its introductory notes that the said document “is not an audit of Abia financial records but a mere financial process review and subsequently issued caveats absolving it of any opinions in the said report because it did not render any.”

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“For the benefit of those who do not know, a forensic audit report is typically conducted with the specific objective of uncovering evidence of fraud or misconduct while a financial process review involves analysing operational workflows, identifying inefficiencies, risks and making recommendations for improvements and may include process redesign and automation and other factors to scale productivity.

“PDP is not surprised that Alex Otti, a graduate of economics who worked in the banking sector all his life to the point of becoming the managing director of a first generation bank, could not differentiate between a forensic audit and a financial process review because he was, as usual, clouded by hate and deep animus for the PDP and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.

“To bring home the fact, the touted report is titled Provision of Process Review Services, not forensic audit report and the Restriction on Distribution of the Report page, states clearly “This final report is intended for the use of Abia State Government (“ABSG”) and should not be used for any other purposes,” the party said.

The statement while further reviewing the document, added: “On Page 16 of the financial process review document, KPMG stated in the Nature of Assignment, that:

*a*. This assignment was not performed by us in the capacity of a statutory auditor. Hence,

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this is not any form of financial statements audit of ABSG or any entity listed in the

report. We are therefore not required to render an opinion on the financial statements of ABSG or any entity listed in the report.

*b*. Rather, we have performed the procedures we considered appropriate in the circumstances and in line with relevant KPMG methodology.

*c*. We were also not required to review the adequacy or otherwise of the output of the prior

or current external auditors and/or consultants of ABSG, and did not perform any of the

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following:

*i*. Conduct a trial and/or inquiry in the course of the assignment.

*ii*. Act as a tribunal, commission of inquiry or in judicial or quasi-judicial role.

*iii*. Perform, any adjudicatory function whatsoever in the course of the assignment.

*iv*. Conduct any exercise with a view to determining whether any person was guilty or innocent of any offence

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“From the foregoing, it is evident to discerning minds that KPMG stated very clearly that it did not conduct an audit, much less, forensic. Transparency and accountability are fundamental principles that underpin good governance and public confidence in the audit process.

“Unfortunately, the operatives of Alex Otti government have continued to anchor their indictment on the N10b payment which Ferotex, the same contractor Alex Otti is still using, made to 32 other contractors. Thankfully, the operatives of the former government have offered explanations to that and so Alex Otti has nothing to say again.

“Like a drowning man who is looking for even a straw to hold onto, Alex Otti keeps making reference to the N10b which he cannot prove. The refusal to allow independent scrutiny of the report suggests a lack of commitment to upholding professional standards and ethical guidelines and PDP demands that Alex Otti make public the cost of the financial process review.

“The decision by KPMG to prevent public disclosure and review of the report lends credence  to the fact that the exercise, for which Alex Otti made a mountain out of a molehill, was after all, just an opportunity to spite the PDP and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and this goes against the principles of openness, transparency, accountability and good governance. It is essential for the Abia state government to ensure that all audit processes are conducted with utmost transparency and that findings are subject to independent verification to maintain public trust.

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“The people of Abia deserve to know the truth about any potential financial irregularities or misconduct uncovered by any audit and we urge the authorities to prioritise transparency and accountability in all matters related to governance and financial management. Fortuitously, the process review report indictated that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu left N3.4b in the coffers of the State, contrary to dubious claims by Alex Otti that he met an empty treasury on assumption of office.

“It is clear to Abians who has been lying to them, between Alex Otti and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu. The Abia PDP calls on Alex Otti to render a public apology to Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu for smearing his name, especially in an international arena, to Abians for misleading and lying to them serially that a forensic audit was conducted with their funds when it was a mere financial process review meant to improve the efficiency of government operations.

“We also call on the good and well meaning people of Abia State to disregard Alex Otti’s recourse to hate and witch hunt and demand from him the good governance which he consistently promised Abians in over eight years as an opposition figure. Governance should be placed above politics for it to make sense.”

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