An All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain and legal practitioner, Eze Chikamnayo, has petitioned the United States, United Kingdom and France, among others, to place visa restriction on Abia State Governor Alex Otti until his administration shows evidence of N54 billion spent for the renovation of public schools in the state.
He also petitioned other countries and international bodies, including Germany, China, Australia, Canada, Britain, Switzerland, the European Union and the African Union.
Addressing a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, Eze Chikamnayo, who is also the convener of the Abia Best Interest Association said the governor and his officials, who, instead of providing empirical evidence of the 51 smart schools for which N54 billion was spent from the state coffers in the last quarter of 2024, resorted to another diversionary tactic.
According to him, the Abia Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, classroom projects being executed with Federal Government counterpart funding are not the same as the smart school projects of the Abia State government.
He said failure 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 third quarter of 2025 is a clear indication of systemic corruption, impunity, lack of transparency and accountability in governance.
“These troubling realities stand in stark contrast to the said expenditure recorded in the State Government Budget Performance Reports, which, as we earlier observed, is different from other financial inflows recorded under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and various Federal Intervention Programmes.
“We are, therefore, compelled to take the following additional measures: Write to the governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Australia, Canada, Britain, Switzerland, the European Union and the African Union to deny Mr Alex Otti a visa to the United States of America and the aforementioned countries in order to halt his frequent travels to the United States to enable him to address the serious questions regarding the whereabouts of these funds and the lack of transparency and accountability in his government.”
N54bn schools renovation: APC chieftain petitions US, UK, seeks visa ban on Otti