Abia Govt Receives Final Report on Recovery of Properties and Funds
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has received the final report of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Recovery of Government Properties, Funds and Related Matters, assuring that the recommendations will be treated with utmost seriousness.
The report, presented at Government House, Umuahia, was handed over by the panel’s chairperson, Hon. Justice Florence Duroha-Igwe (Rtd).
Governor Otti reiterated that the panel was constituted strictly in the interest of transparency and accountability, not as an instrument of vengeance.
“Setting up this Judicial Panel of Inquiry had nothing to do with vendetta or scapegoatism,” the governor said. “We simply needed to know what happened because a proper handover was not done. Citizens had concerns that deserved to be heard and investigated.”
The governor disclosed that a White Paper Committee is already in place and will immediately begin work on the newly submitted two-volume report.
“We will take this report very seriously. These volumes will be dispatched to the Committee on the Production of the White Paper so that they can flesh out the issues we need to address,” Otti stated.
He commended Justice Duroha-Igwe and other members of the panel for what he described as “hard work over the past two years and a few months,” noting that the government had not anticipated the large number of petitions and memoranda received.
Earlier, Justice Duroha-Igwe explained that the panel received 350 petitions and memoranda, successfully hearing and concluding 278.
“On Your Excellency’s directive, we returned to work on the remaining 72 petitions because you insisted no Abian should be left unheard,” she said, adding that the final submission includes an addendum to the main report and an addendum to the proceedings.
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Ikechukwu Uwanna, and other senior government officials witnessed the presentation.
The Judicial Panel was inaugurated to investigate the alleged misappropriation of government assets and funds and to recommend measures for recovery and improved governance.
