Peter Obi left no saving for Obiano ~ Anambra State Govt

The Government of Anambra state has again responded to claims by former Governor of the state, Peter Obi that he left N75 billion saving in the state coffers saying that is propaganda taking too far.

Peter Obi had claimed that upon leaving office, he left N75 billion for Governor Willie Obiano when he was handing over in March 2014.

But, in exclusive interview with ElombahNews, the sate Commissioner of Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba said although Peter Obi performed credibly well as governor of Anambra state, he left nothing for  the administration of Governor Obiano. [SEE VIDEO BELOW]

Adinuba explained that the former Governor did not employ one civil servant for about 8 years but, when it was about two months for him to leave the office he employed 8,000 civil servants including teachers that did not collect any salary until Governor Obiano resumed as Governor.

He however failed to give details .of the amount borrowed so far by the state, but promised to get back to ElombahNews with the information.

Adinuba said, ” for 8 years , Peter Obi did not hire one person, not one civil servant, not one teacher, as he was going, he left in March, he hired 8,000 civil servants and teachers, by the time he left in March, they have not received a kobo and you know that at both Federal and state, it takes three months after you have been hired to get your first salary.

“And so on the very month Governor Obiano took over, he was saddled with the burden of paying 8,000 people that were hired.

“Peter Obi was doing a number a number of roads, about 102 by the time he left office, Peter Obi claimed that he paid for all, you and I know that it is not practicable, no government pays 100% in advance in any where in the world for a contract that has not been completed.

“Somebody made a claim that he has paid for 102 roads in advance, that is taking propaganda too far, and beyond roads which Peter Obi started, there were some projects which are at the five percent stage which Governor Obiano has completed in the home town of our former Governor, Peter Obi, there was an hotel which was at the five percent stage which Governor Obiano competed.”

Peter Obi saving

When the Editor of ElombahNews asked the Commissioner that Peter Obi said he left N75 billion cash and N25 billion worth of assets, the Commissioner said, “The figure keeps on changing, the investment Peter Obi said he left is including Niger Cement, founded by the Eastern Nigeria government, the company has stopped working decades ago, they are counted as money being left behind, investments in Orange Petroleum, which was made by former Governor, Mbadinuju, while Ngige made another N100 million investment 15 years ago, these are things I do not want to discuss.

“You did not hire anybody for 8 years, but when you are leaving, you hired so many people, where did you expect the money to pay them to come from?

“When you handed over 102 uncompleted roads and somebody says he has paid in advance, if you paid for the roads not yet completed in advance, you must be arrested, tried and jailed, sometimes we do carry propaganda too far. ”

Security

The Commissioner said Anambra state has most the sophisticated gadget in the whole of Africa to fight kidnapping adding that when two priests were kidnapped, Governor Obiano was contacted and those Priests were released.

He said , “The state trained Policemen and SSS specially with the newly acquired equipment, don’t forget that we launched most sophisticated gadget in the entire Africa continent .

“I am giving a challenge to kidnapers in Anambra state that they if try it they will be caught, the last time we have issue of kidnapping in Anambra was in Anambra west in December 21 , 2019, but in less than six hours, we caught the kidnapers.

“We have not experienced a single bank robbery in the last six years ”

Anti-Corruption

The Commissioner said, “We are the only state to call EFCC to come and investigate us. It was in March 2018 and EFCC chairman came here physically and stated that he never knew that it is possible in his life time that he will see a state Governor that will invite EFCC leadership to come and see what they are doing. They gave us clean bill of health

Cargo Airport

Adinuba said, ” By November, we are going to give the whole world a surprise. We are going to launch an Airport, the Anambra way of doing things, not just an International Airport, but global standard.”

On Economy

The Commissioner said, “We are the fourth Largest Economy in the country. If we are a country, our economy will be bigger than Cote d’ivoire, we are bigger than Ghana, Congo and others.”

On Internally Generated Revenue

He said, “I don’t know the figure you got, but there are set of figures wrongly published by the Bureau of Statistics. In IGR, we have done so much, but there is still room for improvement, by the time we came in our IGR was between N400 million monthly and it has been risen, what we did last year is N20 billion.

“We are now getting an average of N1.2billion monthly, that is up from N400m .There are too much leakages in the system, people who print all manner of receipts and pretending to be government agents. We don’t know anything about that and we are picking them one by one. We have confiscated a vehicle from fraudsters. ”

On Vision 2070 Committee in Anambra

The Commissioner said that Anambra state is working to ensure that the state becomes like Dubai by the year 2070 and Professor Chukwuma Soludo is pioneering the agenda.

He said, “the essence of the Committee is to make the state like Taiwan, becomes fully developed by the year 2070, the Committee is headed by Professor Chukwuma Soludo

On Performance of Anambra indigenes in Academic field

The Commissioner said that the state is celebrating Anambra indigenes that are doing excellent well in the Academic field.

He said, “the fact that the Governor calls you and recognises you, that is a great incentive, nothing motivates like that .

The mere fact that the Governor goes out of his way to recognise teachers, administrators, pupils, students who excelled, if you have a first class in Anambra state, you are going to get automatic scholarship.”

VIDEO