I was hoping to avoid the drama of Abia State House of Assembly (ABHA) members and how much they get as monthly remuneration because I firmly believed the Speaker, Emmanue Emeruwa, spoke on a lighter note; the same way HE Okezie Ikpeazu jokingly said “flyover ogbasara unu” and a certain Alex Otti made opposition meal out of it. To the best of my observation, Speaker Emeruwa never intended to convey that Governor Otti actually was not taking good care of them yet his light hearted banter was needlessly taken out of context, as opposition Leader Alex Otti would have wrongly done.
Karma is a bitch!!
Sadly, the executive branch of Abia State Government couldn’t stay out of what was purely a legislative affair, as they still don’t know when to keep quiet to allow trivial things evolve and possibly peter away, and now I must state what I verifiably know.
In the spirit of public revelations started by Abia State Government let me help them tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth by sharing what I was reliably informed by someone within the legislative establishment, in the hope the government will also hasten to clarify if I am wrong:
1. Each elected Abia State House of Assembly member (24 in total) currently receives N7,664,000.00 every month as total wage package, including salary and allowances, though the Speaker and his Deputy do not receive housing and related allowances because they are accommodated in official lodges.
2. In addition, the Speaker gets about N50m as security vote every month from where he gives his Deputy a yet to be dislosed amount. My source asserted that the Speaker is also given a list of those to pay allowances to outside the legislative structure by the executive branch thereby using him wrongly to move money here and there. He probably goes home with about N7m monthly while N43m enters executive voice mail.
3. Note that these payments are not given as hard cash but through bank transfers and we can use that to verify, if in doubt.
4. In December 2025 Otti’s government paid each member of the house N10m for Christmas gift and N25m as last tranche of the constituency project fund. That made it N35m that each of them received in one month. But the leadership of the house deducted N300k from each member’s N25m project fund claiming it was used to facilitate the release of the money from the Accountant General’s office thereby paying only N24.7m. Bank transfer evidence will speak to this glaring rot within the system.
5. In June 2025 each member also received N25m as constituency projects fund from the state government. If you add nos 4 and 5 it means they got at least N60m each to take care of those they represent, outside their personal wages highlighted (1) above.
6. In addition, the members were allocated N10m each for the trip to London ostensibly to understudy parliamentary system of government that we do not practice in Nigeria. Of course those who managed the trip shortchanged members by N6m as they were each given N4m while claiming that they used the rest to procure Airpeace Flight ticket and other “logistics”. Verifiable data from Airpeace showed that the ticket cost was N1.88m for each person while hotel accommodation for 4 nights cost £200 (N400k) for each of them.
7. The state government had released N300m to the 24 elected legislators to cover the trip (6) including additional fund for a senior legislative staff and a coordinating aide of the Governor with the executive branch. At least N40m remaining from the N300m could have been used to cover the “logistics” etc yet the house members were apparently fleeced of N6m each. That was why they protested in London.
8. I am not interested in calling that London trip a jamboree because I actually like the fact they traveled, bearing in mind that traveling alone is a form of education.
After reviewing the above, ask yourself why it is only PDP members of the house like Hon Solomon Akpulonu, Hon Mandela Obasi and Honorable Erondu Uchenna Erondu that elaborately empowered their constituents from the money they all got?
What did Labour Party members do with their share?
The house is probably right to officialy state in their statement that the Governor is taking good care of them because he sure is, on the balance of evidence, even though Governor Alex Otti ought not to be the one doing so. There is a legislative branch service commision that is in place which ought to be the agency receiving and disbursing funds budgeted for the operations of that arm of government. Members of that commision are drawing very heavy remunerations from public funds yet doing nothing we know of whereas the leader of the executive branch (Governor Alex Otti) is doing what they were set up by law to do. It is called systemic corruption!
So, while Governor Otti is reportedly taking good care of the lawmakers are they also taking good care of their constituents? I leave that for the house spokesman to answer or the executive busybodies can also weign in, as usual, with half-truths and outright falsehood.
By the way, while the government of Alex Otti rushed to tell the world that Abia house members are the “highest earners in the south east” when will they also rush to state that Abia State Civil Servants are currently the least paid in the same south east region? In case they want to debate this self-evident fact let me “verifiably” state as follows:
For A Level 14 Worker:
Abia 118k
Imo 340k
Enugu 314.
Minimum wage
Abia 70k
Imo 104k
Enugu 80k
Ebonyi 90k
****Some workers in Abia State government’s employment earn N35k or less every month.
Note carefully that those shortchanged workers are the “employers” of the governor and the members of the legislative branch. Governor settles himself with huge security vote in excess of N1b/month, elected lawmakers collect in tens of millions monthly and their “employer” (the workers & other voters) get N35k after screaming “nwere weight” in the scorching sun and standing at polling stations to protect right to be used and dumped by their employees. Uwa di egwu o!
Again, note carefully that Labour Party of NLC is in power in Abia State. In the south east region it is also on record that only Abia State, under Labour Party, forced retirees to forfeit earned pensions and gratuities. All other south east states have cleared inherited arrears which actually were mostly more than what Abia State Labour Party Government of Alex Otti declared they inherited as arrears in 2023. (Go and verify!!)
Is that not an “uwa ntorr” situation for a LABOUR PARTY state and those who believed their lies?
