The Lies of the DMO Report and Why Abians Must Not Let This Fraudulent Narrative Stand. We demand Transparency.
The current administration in Abia State has become synonymous with opacity in governance, a clear recipe for fraud and corruption. This might explain why key government officials are barred from engaging with the public, especially on financial matters.
However, the Governor has made the following admissions publicly and collaborated the Chief Press Secretary while on Eyinmba Fm Aba ,on 8th July 2025.
1) N10 billion was used to defray pension arrears.
2) N18 billion was used to pay salary arrears owed to parastatals such as Abia Polytechnic, ABSU, and others.
Every Abian that has followed the stories of this Government will agree that the above figures were direct claims from the Governor himself. However, many of the intended beneficiaries, especially pensioners have consistently denied receiving such amounts.
During his Midterm Appraisal Report on May 29th 2025, the Governor went further to claim that N40 billion had been spent on settling salary and pension arrears.
We want to know the relationship between the N28 billion earlier stated and the N40 billion claimed in the Governor’s address?
How did an additional N12 billion factor into these payments since old contractors were not paid ?
As of November 2022, the outstanding gratuity of Abia state retirees owed stood at approximately N38 billion. If we extrapolate from that time to now, factoring in new retirees, the figure should be around N45 billion. The government has reportedly claimed that pensioners forfeited their gratuities, a claim pensioners strongly dispute, describing it as a fraudulent clause inserted into documents they were coerced into signing. Why will pensioners be forced donate N45b to a State Government that has received over N800b since May 2023.
Considering the figures stated above as amount spent in payment of outstanding salaries and pensions. We are also aware that old contractors have not been paid a kobo till date . How did N78 billion appear as total amount spent on debt repayment which was reported DMO.? Kindly note that what DMO Abuja reported is based on the figures sent Ministry of Finance Umuahia.
Why the disparity of N50 billion from the amount stated the Government which is N28 billion and the figure published DMO, which is N78 billion.?
Where did the extra N50 billion come from. Where was it spent? Who are the beneficiaries.
For context, look at what other states are doing,outside clearing arrears of Pensions.
Yesterday 9/07/2025, While on live Television ( Arise TV)Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, a former Executive Director at FirstBank, spent N13.6 billion to clear gratuity arrears from 2011 to 2023.
Katsina State paid N24 billion to defray arrears from 2009 to 2024.
Governor Soludo of Anambra used N7 billion to offset gratuities left former Governor Willie Obiano .
Enugu State Government commenced the payment of gratuity from 2010 including Imo State Government that recently started paying arrears of gratuity dating back to Governor Udenwa’s era.
These state Governors are only able to pay down old gratuity debt because of the Institutional reforms of the APC led Federal Government that removed fuel subsidy and floated the Naira . This took the monthly FAAC allocation from N370b to N1.7 trillion.
These repayments directly contributed to reductions in the debt reports published the same DMO.
In Abia, however, aside from the N28 billion claimed the Government as payments for arrears, there is no clear account of how the remaining N50 billion was spent and who the beneficiaries are .
The people of Abia deserve transparency and accountability. The Abia State Government must come clean on these growing financial discrepancies. We demand empirical evidence and a full breakdown of how public funds were spent.
It is becoming clear that cooking of financial books and manipulation of gullible Abians is becoming a state policy.
I will not dignify you on Pro bono service comment as I see it as diversionary. If current occupant of that office goes home with N17m monthly, you have no conscience asking workers and justifying why pensioners should forfeit their pension and outstanding gratuity of N45b.
- Obinna Oriaku
Ekwedike 10/07/2025
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