Abia State Governor Alex Otti has reaffirmed his 2020 comments regarding former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi’s management of $155 million in state funds. Speaking during an interview with Arise Television, Otti stated that he stands by the words he wrote on June 8, 2020, which have resurfaced in recent political discourse.
Otti clarified that his original statement was intended to illustrate that public officials can exercise prudence in managing government resources. He described the 2020 remarks as a factual account of events that occurred six years ago, noting that he has not spoken on the matter since that time.
“They are referring to what I wrote in 2020. I think that was June 8, 2020. I was using it to prove that it’s still possible for people to be prudent in government,” Otti said. He emphasized that the statement remains a record of what happened rather than a new political commentary.
According to Otti, the specific incident involved the currency in which the funds were held. He recalled that when Obi, who was serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the bank at the time, proposed leaving the money in naira, Otti advised against it due to the currency’s tendency to lose value.
“I had said that as the CEO of the bank at that time, he was going to leave the money in naira, and when he came to me and I said no, this naira you want to keep, naira will keep losing value. So you probably want to convert it to dollars, and it was converted,” Otti explained.
Otti concluded by reiterating that the conversion of the funds to dollars was a practical decision made to preserve their value. He maintained that his 2020 statement remains a statement of fact regarding the handling of Anambra State’s finances during that period.
<small>Source: Daily Post Nigeria — read the original story there.</small>
