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Chief Uche Aguoru, the Director of New Media for the dissolved 2023 Campaign Organization of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Governorship Candidate in Abia state, has expressed appreciation towards Governor Alex Otti for initiating the establishment of a judicial panel for probation aimed at recovering misappropriated government assets and funds.
It is worth remembering that Governor Alex Otti, on Tuesday, officially inaugurated a five-member judicial panel of inquiry, with Honorable Justice Ikwuoma Duruoha-Igwe (rtd) serving as the panel’s chairman.
During an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Umuahia, Aguoru praised the governor’s actions and deemed them praiseworthy. He further urged Governor Otti to broaden the scope of the panel’s investigation to include the administrations that followed from May 1999 until 2023.
He’s quoted as saying: ‘Alex Otti is predictable. The much anticipated probe has started. He has set up a judicial panel of Inquiry for the recovery of properties and funds belonging to the Abia state government.’
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‘This move is commendable. Anybody who has any property or funds traceable to ABSG should be made to account for it. Government property is public property, and not private property.’
‘As painful as the defeat of 2015 is, the scars of the defeat should have been healed by the victory of 2023. I hope Governor Alex Otti realizes this and expands the ToR of the probe panel to start from 1999, because Abia was not created in 2015.’
‘And I believe as a son of a pastor, bitterness should not be found in his dwelling and his upbringing is supposed to abhor vendetta and unnecessary victimization of perceived political enemies, unfortunately, I have my doubts.’
‘He should not also toe the line of Ihedioha who went after spoons, plates, forks, pots and buckets purportedly taken from Government House kitchen, when serious matters like Abia Newspapers and some of the lands belonging to public schools that were criminally encroached on and taken over by individuals should be their interest; please avoid Okrika business.’
‘Help us find out who is collecting the rents for the old government house because we heard the property was an inheritance of the Abia state government from the then Eastern Central state.’
‘I heard some people collected monies meant for the development and expansion of Umuahia, and used it to do buga. Please, help us to take it back. We need it to build a flyover at the old Isigate Umuahia market.’
‘Please, remind them to look into the Ogwumabiri market and why a property belonging to the Government should be leased out by an individual, we need to know.’
The call for probation for accountability is to reinstate transparency in Abia state, holding politicians who misappropriated public funds responsible for their actions and ensuring they are held accountable for the misappropriations.
