The Governor-elect of Abia State, Alex Otti, has announced the constitution of transition council members ahead of his 29 May swearing-in ceremony as the next elected governor of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had, on 22 March, declared Mr Otti of the Labour Party as the winner of the 18 March governorship election in Abia State.
The governor-elect announced the constitution of the transition council members on Tuesday in a post via his verified Twitter handle.
“Preparatory to our formal assumption of office on May 29, 2023, I named members of the Transition Council that will articulate policy agenda for a new Abia,” Mr Otti posted on the micro-blogging website.
“The council, to be chaired by Victor Onyenkpa and co-chaired by Ifueko Omogui Okauru, will be inaugurated on Friday, April 14, 2023, in Aba,” he added.
Mr Onyenkpa is the chief operating officer of KPMG, a multinational consulting firm providing audit, tax and advisory services while Mrs Okauru is a former chairperson of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
The governor-elect, in a separate statement, issued by the Council’s Secretariat later on Tuesday, identified other members of the council to include Arunma Oteh, a former director-general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission and former treasurer and vice-president of the World Bank.
Mrs Oteh also currently serves as a director at FSD Africa, an international development agency focused primarily on financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
Others are Ndubuisi Ekekwe, a Nigerian-born inventor and professor who helped Apple design a semiconductor for the iPhone, Uche Orji, the immediate past chief executive office of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and Victor Okoronkwo, the group managing director of Aiteo Oil and Gas.
Frank Nneji, Founder of ABC Transport Company and Ide John Udeagbala, an Abia-based entrepreneur, are also members of the council, according to the statement.
It described members of the transition council as “distinguished professionals and technocrats” in business, economics, entrepreneurship and politics.
“The choice of Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, for the inauguration of the Council is strategic as well as significant with the Enyimba City being the centrepiece of the incoming Alex Otti government’s economic and infrastructural development plan,” the statement added.
