The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chapter in Abia State has refuted Governor Alex Otti’s Sunday claim that Okezie Ikpeazu’s previous administration spent N10 billion on the Port Harcourt Road in Aba.

In same manner, the party has been challenging Otti to form an impartial technical verification panel in order to confirm the accuracy of the road construction and drainage projects on Port Harcourt Road.

“I know that some monies had been taken in the past,” Otti had said during his Sunday night media talk with journalists.The 2017 money exchange rate was 280 naira, same like on Port Harcourt Road, where our predecessors spent a whooping 10 billion naira. Apart from smashing people’s houses, nothing was done on Port Harcourt Road with that money.

However, the PDP challenged Otti to form an impartial panel made up of certified project auditors and engineers from the Federal Ministry of Works to report on the quality of work completed by the previous administration on Port Harcourt Road in Aba and to verify and publish the precise amount of money that Ikpeazu actually spent. The statement was made in a statement by the PDP’s Vice Chairman, Abraham Amah, who is also acting as the Publicity Secretary.

The governor of Abia was admonished by Abraham, who asserted that the Ikpeazu administration he worked for completed nearly 40% of the Port Harcourt road, to concentrate on providing the Abians with the benefits of democracy rather than criticizing his predecessor.

“We hereby propose the establishment of an independent technical verification panel composed of certified project auditors, engineers from the Otti and Ikpeazu administrations, and engineers from the Federal Ministry of Works.”

Amah further recommended that the aforementioned panel confirm records indicating the amount paid by the Ikpeazu administration to contractors for the Port Harcourt road and additional flood control projects on certain Aba roads.

The party also proposed that in order to compare Otti’s assertion with the Ikpeazu administration’s contract records, the technical verification panel should confirm and make public the specifics of the N30 billion contract for the recently granted Port Harcourt road in Aba.

He declared, “To be clear, the Ikpeazu administration never spent anywhere close to the N10 billion Otti propaganda sum on the 5.9 km Port Harcourt Road, Aba.”