The Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Chioma Otti, has commended the Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) Abia for touring and inspecting projects in the State. This is geared towards identifying the progress the government has made under one year in office. He assured that the government will continue to partner with them and must at all times pay attention to their observations to know areas that need improvement.

Governor Otti, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma, at an interactive session with the Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria, held at Umuahia North LGA multi-purpose Hall, lauded OMPAN for thinking outside the box. He mentioned that what they have done is geared towards bringing Abia State to the limelight.

Dr. Otti described media as critical stakeholders in governance, especially in a democracy. He said the government is excited that OMPAN stepped out to go and inspect projects independently to confirm as well as authenticate what the government claims to have done.

He pointed out that even though the tour was limited to only road infrastructure, the government has done much more in different areas trying to take the State to the place it should be.

On assumption of office, the Governor declared a state of emergency in 5 key areas: road infrastructure, education, health, waste management, and security. He disclosed that the government appointed experts and professionals as key officers in charge of the health sector, actions taken to completely overhaul the sector as well as to turn the health sector around.

Governor Otti revealed that the government plans to renovate all the General hospitals in the State, and added that the health sector received the second-highest allocation in the 2024 budget which he said was an intentional action by the government to ensure that the health sector is given a facelift.

He informed that there is a massive improvement in the area of waste management considering where the government started because, on assumption of office, someone in charge of a task force was appointed and charged to clear the huge of refuse on the streets of Aba and Umuahia.

He pointed out that private operators were selected which was not a politicized arrangement or something done to settle people and Aba was divided into 4, and Umuahia was divided into 2 because the government wanted to ensure absolute cleaning of the city.

He said the government has not issued any demand notice for refuse waste since it assumed office rather, “What we have done now is to enumerate all the households in the State, especially in Aba and Umuahia, reviewed what we did, backed it by law because what we want to do is house to house collection of refuse.”

He further explained that “what we are doing in the area of infrastructure, government is being very intentional. We are doing it as a way of taking our State where it should be and we are doing a whole lot to ensure that we rebuild our State.”

He said security is another area in his government that has recorded enough achievements to ensure the security of lives and properties.

He explained that the government set up the joint security force, Operation Crush, mobilized them and provided the required security equipment and they swung into action, noting that in a place like Lokpanta criminals no longer have control of there because the government has sanitized the place.

“Government is putting on measures to ensure that all those criminal activities are nipped in the bud. The government is very intentional about making life livable for the people of Abia State and we are committed to rewriting our history.”

Explaining the efforts of the government in the education sector, he revealed that approval was given for the construction of 10 primary and 3 secondary schools per local government, adding the government was intentional to ensure that the education sector was allocated 20 percent of the 2024 budget.

He said most of the public schools in the State are in a state of decay which led to the upsurge in private schools. The government wants to invest massively in public schools to rebuild them and make sure public schools are more conducive to learning.