According to John Okiyi Kalu, who served as the former Commissioner for Trade and Investment in Abia State, the previous Governor of the state, Okezie Ikpeazu, did not employ bulletproof automobiles during his whole eight-year tenure as Governor, despite the fact that the South East is plagued by a number of security issues.
He stated that the former Governor favored riding in cars branded with the Innoson name, such as Lexus Jeeps and Toyota Sequoias.
The admission was made by the former Commissioner in his 13-point response to an article published by the former Head of Alex Otti’s transition committee, Rev. Fr. Christian Anokwuru Uche. In that piece, the priest stated that Otti’s transition committee members did not receive cooperation from the Ikpeazu team. The former Commissioner disclosed this information in his answer.
Read: Ikpeazu claims to have left N6bn for Alex Otti not debts
Okiyi added that Ikpeazu was prudent with the management of Abia State’s resources, which, according to him, caused the former Governor to select for less expensive cars even in the face of a perilous security situation in the South East. Okiyi remarked that Ikpeazu was prudent with the management of Abia State’s resources.
“Permit me to state for the record that during the eight years that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu served as governor of Abia, he never purchased or rode in a bullet-proof car using money that came from the state’s taxpayers,”
” He never allowed himself to be lavished with such pointless ostentation at the expense of the general populace.
Indeed, the vehicles that he used most frequently for official business were a Lexus Jeep, a Toyota Sequoia automobile, and a Jeep branded by Innoson. The Sequoia is rumored to have been purchased used.
Okiyi, who was a member of the Ikpeazu handover committee, stated that the Ikpeazu administration properly handed over working documents of government to a representative of Governor Otti, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, in the morning of May 29, 2023. Okiyi questioned why the previous government is being accused of being hostile to Governor Otti’s takeover of power. Okiyi served as a member of the Ikpeazu handover committee.
He went on to say that the Ikpeazu transition committee had given Otti and his Deputy a brand new Lexus Jeep and a Hilux van, but that the Otti transition team had turned down the vehicles. He said that the Otti transition team had made this assertion.
Okiyi gave the newly installed administration in Abia some advice, telling them to avoid “propaganda” and instead focus on governance.
In the 20-point article, Fr. Anokwuru expressed his displeasure with the fact that members of the transition committee established by the previous Governor did not provide the members of Otti’s transition committee with the appropriate cooperation but instead reportedly treated them with arrogance.