F ormer governor of Anambra State Peter Obi has debunked news report that the incumbent government of the state inherited little from its predecessor , saying that there is no iota of truth in the said report, insisting that the former governor indeed left N75 billion behind for his successor, according to reports by The Union Newspaper.
Reacting to a recent statement by the Secretary to Anambra State Government, Prof Solo Chukwulobelu that Governor Willie Obiano inherited only N9 billion cash and N25 billion investment, an aide to Obi, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, described the statement as untrue and deliberate attempt to misrepresent facts.
In a statement made available to the press, Obienyem said that Mr. Obi would ordinarily not wish to be drawn into unnecessary controversy but that he (Obienyem) had the responsibility to set
the records straight.
He described as interesting the improvement from telling Anambra people that Obi left no money by the Anambra Government to the half true that they only met N9 billion cash and what they nebulously described as N25 billion near cash.
Obienyem said that even on that score alone, especially against the background of debts by other states, even after borrowing and raising of bonds that Obi needed to be congratulated.
However, Obienyem, who wondered while it took them two years to come up with this, insisted Obi left over N75 billion in cash and investment.
He went on to break it down as follows: N27 billion in local currency investment; N26. 5 billion in foreign currency investment; N28.1 billion in Certified State/ MDS balances.
“ Even in the final handover document, Obi deducted N10 billion approved Federal Government Refund, as well as the salary, pension, gratuity, money on certificates raised on contracts for the month of March which all amounted to N5 billion before arriving at the balance of over N75 billion he bequeathed his successor.
“ As a financial expert, Obi went to his end of tenure event with Governor Willie Obiano and said all this in the presence of all the Bank MDS in whose banks the monies are.
In fact, as at March 17th he handed over, he got all the certified statements of Anambra’s accounts from the banks this monies were and handed them over to his NGO Advocates Consolidated Budget For SEMA successor. If they were confused on where the monies were , why would they not call Obi who kept them to explain the whereabouts to them as much as he knew? “, Obienyem submitted.
On the diminished value of the foreign currency investment, Obienyem said it was a clear lie. Obienyem challenged them to make the calculation public for financial experts to debunk or better still set up a Committee to do proper analyses.
His words: “They should know that the dollar investment is to be held till maturity. It is not to be sold and I hope somebody is not salivating to sell them. As at Friday, the money, originally $156m is now $ 176m dollars. This means it has gained $20m dollars (over 8 billion Naira). This is not guess work but financial exactitude any expert can figure out”, Obienyem said.
On the liabilities Obi left, Obienyem described it as another misrepresentation of fact. He said that not only that the figures they gave were incorrect, Obienyem said that Obi paid contractors being owned by his predecessors and did not owe a single contractor before leaving office.
Are they saying he should pay for contracts awarded but not yet executed before he left office? Did his successor not ran his campaign on the premise of continuity before the people voted him?”, Obienyem asked, while insisting that Obi took over one year to complete projects started by Dr. Chris Ngige before starting his massively.
Obienyem who said he was not in the business of commenting on what was paid or not on projects started by Obi thanked God that they did not deny the fact that before leaving office, Obi paid billions for Agulu Lake Hotel, Onitsha Hotel, Awka and Nnewi shopping malls, invested in SABMiller (value of that investment has tripled), among others.
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