* Iwerebor, Others Knock Gov, Accuse him of Crippling Delta State…
* Ask Auditor General, DG DMO of Federation to Halt Okowa’s Financial Shenanigans
More knocks continue to trail Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s move to borrow a fresh N150Bilion loan as the Delta Integrity Movement(DIM) has condemned the move as another fresh phase of unquantifiable debt and misery for the people of Delta State.
According to the Delta Integrity Movement(DIM), it was even more unsettling to note that this amount is about half of the yearly income of the state, noting that Governor Okowa has taken too many loans in whatever description, including a loan to finance the new state Secretariat project that cost over N15 billion.
Said the DIM,” we are not ignorant of how these financial operations work. Why would Delta State be so keen to suddenly acquire this size of new loan when only recently, in February this year, this same House of Assembly approved a N12 billion financial loan to Governor Okowa as credit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to cushion , as govt said, the effect of resumption of repayment of the Federal Govt intervention facilities.
“In December 2021it also approved a N20 billion loan from Fidelity Bank to the state. In addition,in November last year it approved an N18.7 billion bridging facility for this same administration from the Central Bank of Nigeria. These loans do not include several others that were incurred in the last few years and are still awaiting full repayment”
Concerned by the rising debts, the group further noted that ” in the over 20 years of PDP administration in the state, there has never been any serious efforts to create jobs through sustainable or production-related factories that can progressly lift a majority of the people out of crass poverty. What the state continues to boast of is short-term and low-skill empowerment programmes that are boring and outdated, they fiddle out before they even commence and in the end , most of the beneficiaries return to their previous condition of misery and economic dependacy”
In a release signed by Dr W. S. Iwerebor, for and on behalf of the DIM whose membership cut across the three Senatorial Zones of the State, the group warned that with the massive loans that continue to hang over the neck of Delta State, it is saddening that Governor Okowa has undertaken this despicable action when his administration is about commencing the process of winding down
“This decision cannot be acceptable to a majority of Deltans, whose future has been further mortgaged. In fact, the accumulation of huge loans in the twilight of successive administration’s in Delta State since 1999 has become a character flaw of serial PDP governments. If we rely on previous experience , it is obvious that Governor Okowa potentially aims to profit from this loan in more ways than one, including diverting a substantial part of this loan for political purposes as the election season begins. We therefore implore Governor Okowa to quickly take one step back and discontinue the acquisition of this offensive loan”
Commending the clear-mindedness and development focusness of the Deputy President of the Senate, DSP Ovie Omo-Agege, as an aide of the latter weighed in on the subject matter for the good of Delta State. The group said, “Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege has once again lent his voice against this kind of “madness”, describing the loan as “unjustifiable and a plot to sink further generations of the state into debts”
At a time Governor Okowa is reportedly clashing with former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori over who become the PDP flag bearer which has plungged the party into endless crisis, many believe that the governor is deviously desperate to crash Delta State in a calamitious bid to checkmate Ibori and square up for the fight between the vast majority of the people of Delta State as represented by Omo-Agege who insist that Delta has had enough of Okowa’s PDP shananigans and a dying clique( led by Okowa) trying to hold on to a straw!
