By Anayo Okoli

UMUAHIA—ABIA State House of Assembly has suspended the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Abraham Oba for addressing journalists to distance his party from the approval given to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to borrow N30 billion.

He was replaced by Mr. Ikedi Ezekwesiri, representing Umunneochi Constituency, as the new Minority Leader.

The APGA caucus had at a press briefing  Monday, said that they were deceived by the Speaker of the House to pass the resolution approving the request of the governor to source the N30 billion funds.

In fact, APGA law makers alleged that “a dummy was sold to them to pass the resolution”.

The action of the opposition law makers did not however go down well with the ruling PDP law makers, who quickly moved to remove the Minority Leader, who they accused of ridiculing the House of Assembly.

At the press briefing that sparked off the crisis, the APGA law makers said that the Speaker of the House, Mr. Martins Azubuike deceived them into approving the loan without giving them detailed information about it.

The Minority Leader, Chief Abraham Oba, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, alleged that the Speaker had at their executive session, told the members that the loan was meant to finance some developmental projects. Such projects, he said include dredging of Aba River, road projects and health facilities.

According to Oba, the Speaker promised to clear the air about some fundamental issues raised by APGA members during the executive session but failed to do so at the plenary when the motion was raised and subsequently passed.

The Minority Leader said that they were shocked two days after the passage of the resolution for the loan, to learn through media reports credited to the Economic Adviser to Okezie Ikpeazu, Mr. Obinna Oriaku, that the loan was not for development but money meant to clear the accumulation of debts owed by the state.

“We have been deceived by the Speaker. He lied to us. And we are no longer part of the approval, as we are disassociating ourselves from the deceit by the Speaker.

“Any bank negotiating to lend the money is doing so at its risk until the Governor comes up with the true position about the loan including mode of re- payment”, APGA law makers said.

In his own contribution, the member representing Ikwuano constituency, Theophilus Ugbaja, said “they sold a dummy to us that the state was only owing N6 billion and that the loan would be used to wipe off the debt and finance major projects in the state and now they a singing a different tune.”