Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has granted request by the Judicial Panel of Enquiry on the Recovery Government properties, funds and related matters extension to address areas not yet covered.
Otti gave the approval while receiving the final report of the panel at the Government House, Umuahia.
According to the Governor, “Since there are petitions that have not been investigated, more time should be given to the panel to cover such areas instead of abruptly terminating the job of the panel.
“I received the interim report earlier and I can confirm that the report was a job thoroughly done. I have no doubt that this final report would not depart from that trajectory you have set.
“I had also heard how people tried to frustrate your efforts and also how you resisted them. This will go down in history as part of the courageous effort you and your team had made to rescue Abia State and to put it on the developmental path,” Governor Otti stated.
He thanked the chairman of the panel, Florence Duruoha Igwe, a Justice, and her team for a job well done and assured them that government would take the recommendations in the report seriously and implement it to the latter.
“One thing that is not lacking in this government is courage. It is only courage that you require to do the right thing.”
“I can assure you that we are going to take this report very, very seriously and we are going to implement it to the letter.
“I want to reassure you that none of your recommendations will be swept under the carpet.
Read also: We want to make Abia an investment destination – Otti
“It doesn’t matter how long you have been living in a decayed system. Once you have the courage to correct it, you will start a new journey and anytime you start a new journey with courage, you will also be able to complete it,” he said
Otti disclosed that some of the people invited by the panel who had illegitimately acquired what did not belong to them had started complying by returning them to the government and called on others yet to do so to follow suit before government would go after them.
“Already, some of the people you had called have already started complying. One came here to return documents of a property somewhere that he acquired illegitimately and he said he didn’t want our trouble,” Governor Otti stated.
Submitting the three-volume report to the Governor earlier, Duruoha-Igwe, the chairman of the Panel who said that the panel received 350 petitions and memoranda and had 99 sittings explained that they were able to conclude on such areas of their assignment as markets, lands, employments, movable properties, contracts and other related matters.
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