Former Abia Finance Boss Mr. Obinna Oriaku has reacted to the allegations by a group identified as Concerned Abia Youths Forum (CAYF) who raised alarm, accusing the latter and Lloydant Business Services of ripping off the state through huge commissions and extortion.
The group, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Cyril Ahamefula ; Secretary, Kalu Ndukwo Anya and PRO, Kingsley Ekeke, said that it is shocking that the problem of biometric data, wage bill and payroll management still persists in the state despite huge fees and commissions collected by LLOYDANT BUSINESS SERVICES a firm in charge of unified e-portal system for all the government owned tertiary institutions in Abia State.
Speaking in a press conference with media organizations, Hon. Oriaku explained that even while he was still working in the Bank, before becoming a Commissioner for Finance, Lloydant Business Services was already in operation in Abia State Polytechnic under the leadership of Prof. Ikonne who also took them to Abia State University Uturu when he became the Vice Chancellor.
He further stressed that all the managing directors of the company were listed in their certificate of incorporation with CAC and all of them are still working in the company till date.
To him, all the tantrums and blackmails he is facing are all politically motivated because he has refused to do the biddings of those who are trying to blackmail him.
Hon. Obinna Oriaku further challenged the petition writers to stop chasing shadows, but to bring up facts, figures or any proof they have that he illegally enriched himself when he was Commissioner for Finance.
Oriaku who was amazed at the allegation of a group known as Concern Abia Youth Forum which accused him of working with the said firm in a bid to sap the State of huge amount of money from the treasury, maintained that he has no business interest in Lloydant as speculated by the group and also revealed that the group of petition writers lack the basic knowledge of the job and services provided by Lloydant.
Chief Oriaku however said that engaging Lloydant Business Services has helped the various Tertiary Institutions in the State to move from the level they were in terms of revenue generation to an appreciable level within the space of months, saying that in 2015, School of Health Aba which generated about 29million, increased its revenue to 204million through the help of Lloydant services in 2019.
He further said that Abia State University Uturu equally increased its revenue through the services of Lloydant from 1.4billion in 2015 to 3.5billion in 2018.
As at 2015, Abia Poly was having 654.007(Six hundred thousand) BUT in 2018 under the services of Lloydant, it increased to 1,170,543.38(1.1million).
He said that what Lloydant has done so far has helped the State generally especially students in our tertiary institutions through its services in the areas of online sale of forms, admission screening, online registration, online charge payment, online result checking, and Wi-Fi-deployment and access etc.
The former Finance boss went further to explained that those writing petitions against him in the National dailies are those who does not mean well for the State, wondering why people should not appreciate the good works that Lloydant as a firm has been able to do in the areas of increase in revenue generation.
On the 150m contract, Chief Oriaku recalled that on assumption of office, It was discovered that Abia State had no centralised pay roll system. He engaged UBA being the official bank to the state to fund the deployment of centralized pay rolll and biometrics registration of entire civil servants. The bank committed their 70m for this project. This led to the discovery and reduction of our wage bill with about 600m. We are also able to identify 323 teachers that were due for retirement with over 800 fake civil servants employed without any waiver.
He explained that the fact that the companies address is in Enugu and that he resides in Enugu where he has had an illustrious career as a Banker, does not mean that he has any business interest with the services of the company nor with the owner of the firm and used the medium to call on those who think he has wronged them in any way to come to him directly and ventilate their anger, instead of resorting to tarnishing his image which has taken him many years to build, and thanked Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu for insisting on transparency adding that his corruption free administration, has helped the State to enjoy appreciable increase in its revenue generation as witnessed in all sectors of the State.
