The Abia State Governor-Elect, Alex Otti has announced a list of distinguished professionals and technocrats in business, economics, entrepreneurship and politics as members of the Transition Council, preparatory to his formal assumption of office on May 29, 2023.

Otti, in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Council’s Secretariat, said the Transition Council will help to articulate a policy document that would forge a direction and developmental agenda for Abia, in line with his vision for the state.

The Council will be chaired by Victor Onyenkpa, Partner and COO, KPMG, and co-chaired by Ifueko Okauru, former Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Arunma Oteh, former Director General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); former Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank and currently a Director at FSD Africa, an international development agency focused primarily on financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa, is also on the Council.

Other notable members are Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, a Nigerian-born inventor who helped Apple design a semiconductor for the iPhone; Mr Uche Orji, the immediate past CEO of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Victor Okoronkwo, GMD of Aiteo Oil and Gas; Mr. Frank Nneji, Founder of ABC Transport Company; and Ide John Udeagbala, an Aba-based business mogul.

The Council will be inaugurated on Friday, April 14, 2023 by the Governor-Elect in Aba.

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.

Otti had promised during the campaigns to create a ministry for Aba, to take charge of the urban and physical renewal of the once foremost commercial and industrial hub of South East Nigeria.