Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to eliminating corruption within the state civil service with a vow to prosecute suspects involved in Pension Fraud.
Governor Otti disclosed this while during the October edition of the Monthly Media Parley tagged “Governor Otti Speaks to Abians”.
The Governor who was responding to the recent cases of pension fraud allegedly orchestrated by some civil servants disclosed that about Eleven suspects have already been arrested, with investigations ongoing.
He stated that his government will not stand by while state resources are siphoned by a few individuals.
According to the Governor, some of the suspects implicated in the pension fraud case are believed to be outside the country and vowed that government would repatriate them to face the full course of the law.
“We will continue with our efforts to sanitize the civil service.Our tolerance for corruption is zero and once we got convincing information, we had to arrest the people involved.
“As I was coming for this chat, I got a report of the investigation from the security agencies and I have authorized that in the next few days, they should be arraigned before the court.
“Some of them are outside the country, we are going to repatriate them to answer to their sins. We can’t tolerate that kind of corruption no matter who is involved“, Otti vowed.
Governor Otti who expressed dismay at what he described as attempts by opposition to defend the suspects, emphasized that there would be consequences for obstructing the government’s anti-corruption efforts.
“People who are defending thieves, we need to treat them as thieves themselves.
“Unfortunately, some of the vuvuzelas of the opposition who are so shameless went on air to castigate the government.
“My question is somebody stole and I arrested him and you went to press and said I shouldn’t arrest a thief, that means you are a thief yourself.
“But I think we have responded to them and continued with their prosecution. I’m issuing a warning that there is a limit to opposition.
