Dear Reader and Fan, let us deal with this carefully, because what is being attempted here is not correction but historical laundering.
Now to the Geometric Power issue. The claim being pushed is that Alex Otti “never sourced or approved any loan” for Geometric Power and that the $85 million story was mere “paperwork.” That is not what the public record says.
Liars everywhere!
Hell is real! …and readied…
Governor Otti’s own 2024 public speech, The Power to Dream, states that he secured approval for an $85 million facility from First Bank, that Geometric could not draw on it because his move to Diamond Bank had become public, and that after he resumed at Diamond Bank on March 1, 2011, he put together a team that restructured the challenged facility and resumed funding of the project to completion.
That same account was independently reported by Channels Television, which quoted Otti saying that after First Bank approved the $85 million facility, Geometric could not draw it because of his imminent move, and that at Diamond Bank the facility was restructured and the funding was seen through to completion by October 2014.
THISDAY also carried substantially the same narrative, again quoting Otti that the $85 million First Bank approval existed, was not drawn, and that Diamond Bank restructured the challenged facility and resumed funding to completion.
So let us be exact. If someone wants to argue that the First Bank facility was approved but not fully drawn, that is one thing. But to jump from that to
“Alex Otti never sourced or approved any loan” is simply false on the face of the publicly stated record.
The approved facility is itself part of the financing history, and the subsequent Diamond Bank restructuring is also part of that history. Denying both requires denying the public documentary trail altogether.
https://www.alexotti.com/the-power-to-dream/�
https://www.channelstv.com/2024/02/29/why-abia-geometric-power-project-took-20-years-gov-otti/�
https://www.thisdaylive.com/2024/03/03/at-last-geometric-ready-for-steady-power-supply-in-aba/�
The next claim is that when Otti got to Diamond Bank, Geometric had already been taken over by AMCON, and all he did was discuss workout and restructuring of an old debt. Even if one accepts that there were debt challenges and restructuring, that still does not erase Otti’s role.
In project finance, restructuring a distressed facility and restoring funding flow is not trivial bookkeeping; it is often the decisive act that saves a project from collapse.
Publicly available legal and project summaries describe later restructurings and refinancing around the Aba Integrated Power Project as central to unlocking progress. Templars, for instance, notes that restructuring and refinancing helped unlock additional Afreximbank funding for Geometric.
That leads to the Afreximbank point. It is true that Afreximbank later became a major financier of Geometric Power. Afreximbank states that in 2021 it signed a $50 million term loan facility with Geometric Power to support completion of generation and distribution infrastructure, the gas pipeline, and commencement of operations.
https://www.afreximbank.com/afreximbank-signs-us50-million-new-debt-financing-for-the-geometric-power-ipp-power-project-completing-us332-recapitalisation/�
https://www.afreximbank.com/geometric-power-commissions-the-afreximbank-backed-141mw-aba-integrated-power-project-%EF%BF%BC/
But notice what this does not prove. It does not prove that Otti had no earlier role. It proves that Geometric had multiple financing phases across many years, involving different institutions and restructurings. In fact, Afreximbank’s 2025 development-impact report describes the Aba project as a long-gestation integrated project whose 141MW generation component was completed and commissioned only in February 2024.
So the honest account is not “Afreximbank financed it, therefore Otti did nothing.” The honest account is: Geometric Power had a long and complicated financing journey involving early bank approvals, restructuring, later refinancing, and eventual Afreximbank support.
That is a multi-stage history, not a one-stage myth.
The frustrated writer also says there were already about four captive power plants in Nigeria before Geometric and mentions Mobil Eket. This is a classic example of mixing categories to create confusion.
Mobil’s power assets and NERC-related permits do not disprove the significance of Geometric Power in Aba. NERC’s licensee data includes Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited under captive power generation permits, and other materials reference Mobil’s Eket-area power developments.
https://nerc.gov.ng/need-help/services/licencees/�
https://nerc.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Captive-Power-Generation-Permit-2.csv
But Geometric is being discussed not merely as “a power plant exists,” but as the Aba Integrated Power Project—an embedded, ring-fenced generation-and-distribution system with major significance for Aba’s industrial ecosystem.
Afreximbank describes it as an integrated project with generation, gas pipeline, rehabilitated and new substations, and dedicated lines. Its 2025 evaluation even calls it the first integrated power generation and distribution company in Nigeria in this specific sense.
That distinction matters. Saying “there were other captive plants before Geometric” does not refute the Geometric story any more than saying “there were banks before First Bank” refutes a particular banking transaction. It is a distraction tactic, not a rebuttal.
Then there is the street-sense version of the issue. Please, next time if one retired Chief spins or tells you a 20-year project had only one rescuer, only one financier, only one phase, and only one hero, they are insulting your intelligence. Big infrastructure projects do not work that way. They pass through approvals, failed drawdowns, restructurings, legal resets, refinancing, regulatory bottlenecks, gas-supply problems, and eventual commissioning. The public record shows Geometric Power passed through exactly those stages.
So what is the truth?
The truth is that Alex Otti’s publicly documented role is real. He says he secured approval for an $85 million facility at First Bank, could not complete drawdown there, then restructured and resumed funding at Diamond Bank. That account is not floating alone; it was echoed by major news reports and fits the known reality that Geometric needed multiple financing and restructuring phases before ultimate completion.
https://www.alexotti.com/the-power-to-dream/�
https://www.channelstv.com/2024/02/29/why-abia-geometric-power-project-took-20-years-gov-otti/�
The truth is also that Afreximbank later played a major role, especially in the 2021 phase and in supporting commissioning readiness. That is public and undeniable.
And the truth is that none of this erases Dr. Otti’s long-standing connection to Abia’s power future.
*So the lie is not that Otti was part of the story. The lie is the attempt to erase him from the story.
That is not correction.
That is revisionism.
AProf Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke and Team’s research effort
