Abia governor-elect, Mr. Alex Otti has received the report of the Transition Council, saying that the job of implementing his policies has been made easier.
Otti had last month set the 101-member TC chaired by a Partner at KPMG, Mr. Victor Onyenkpa to come up with a policy direction for his incomung administration.
The membership of the TC comprised many technocrats, including a former executive chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okaru, as members.
A press release from Otti’s media team issued by Mr. Kazie Uko said that the report of the TC was received by the governor-elect on Sunday, eight days to his inauguration.
Otti expressed gratitude to the members of theTransition Council, noting that their recommendations were far-reaching and in tandem with his vison for a new Abia.
“I will say that this job(governance) has been made very easy by the job that you have done,” he said, adding that with the fresh ideas and sharper focus contained in the report “it becomes easier to implement”.
“I want to thank you for the energy, I want to thank you for the time you put into this. I want to thank you for doing a job without pay. I do know how important your time is. You can rest assured that we are not going to take lightly the efforts you have put into this”.
The governor-elect assured the TC members that he would make them very proud because “the recommendations that you have made will be implemented”.
Otti had during his campaigns promised to create a ministry dedicated to the redevelopment of Aba, but in its report the TC advised the governor-elect against designating a ministry for the development as the attendant bureaucracy could constitute a drawback.
He said: “When we talk about disruption, when we talk about digital economy, when we talk of about Aba, and I agree with you when you say, may be the creation of a ministry is not the solution, we’ll go and look at it again. The reality is that I want an agency that will report directly to me, that is in charge of Aba.
“So, if calling it a ministry will take away from what we want to achieve, we can call it anything and if the ministry with all its bureaucracy can be a problem, I can be a commissioner in charge of Aba.”
Otti was so impressed with the TC that he said he won’t disband it but would rather restructure the council and retain it for the period he will be governor of Abia State.
He said that the TC would change to a Special Advisory Council, which would serve as a standing committee “for as long and as I’m the governor of Abia state”.
On the purported annulment of his mandate by a Federal High Court in Kano, Otti reiterated that “the mandate that Abia people gave us is sacrosanct(hence) nobody should lose sleep”, insisting he would be inaugurated on May 29, 2023.
He said that though “I don’t think (the court judgement) is something to worry about” he was not leaving any thing to chance, adding that “my lawyers are doing something about it”.
“However, eternal vigilance is what is required, when you have enemies around you,” Otti said.
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