Delta state acquires MASSIVE N150bn debt within 17 months of Okowa’s tenure

– The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has claimed that the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is running oil-rich Delta state aground

– Delta State chairman of the SDP, Oke Idawene said the Okowa’s administration has acquired massive debts in just 17 months in power

Delta state chairman of the SDP Oke Idawene has raised the alarm that in 17 months since Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has been in office the state has borrowed not less than N150billion as additional debt to the over N300billion debt left behind by the past administration of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.

Idawene, who told a group of journalists in his office that he has deliberately stayed away from dining with the political aides of the governor to avoid being bribed, said despite the huge debt the state is owing, there is practically no development on ground to show where the money has gone into.

He challenged the Governor and his economic team to publish the debt profile of the state saying his statistics on the state’s debt profile were obtained from intelligence report made available to him from reliable sources.

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“In the last 18 months, from intelligence reports I have received, Delta has about N150billion debt. What was the money used for? If you say uduaghan dragged the state into over N300billion debt in eight years, in 18 months you are owing over N150billion, so in eight years, what happens?” he queried.

Looking at the 2017 apprpriation bill which has passed second reading in the state house of assembly, Idawene punctured a hole in the budget, saying the 2016 it had N265billion in it but performed below 23 percent, consequently he said the budget failed and did not meet the demands of Deltans and the programmes it was meant to service.

He added that following the failure of the 2016 budget, it was inconceivable for the governor to have increased the 2017 budget to N270 billion with recurrent expenditure standing at 60 percent, saying the this 60 percent expenditure is to settle politicians and wastages in government.

“In this 2017 budget, I do not foresee a solution to the moribund economy in Delta State. States like Kano and Lagos fund their budgets through Internally Generated Revenue but Delta is depending on federal allocation. The 2016 budget as presented is nothing to write home about. It has no recipe for the development of the state. We must change,” Idawene insisted.

He looked at the projects of the Governor and insisted that the roads being commissioned by the governor cannot stand the test of time, adding that no mega project to show that there is an active governor in Delta State.

“Okowa is only resurfacing and not constructing roads in Delta. The Governor has not done beyond 3km roads since he came into office. For the past 18 months, no mega project to show that there is a government in the state. Some of the roads he commissioned in Asaba are NDDC roads and not state roads.

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“Okowa is always giving excuses of bombing as reason for saying there is no money in the state. He had been in office for one year before the bombing started. He should stop giving those excuses. A state with mineral resources with leverage to touch any country in the world and make business connections cannot say there is no money to run the economy.

“The state took bailout funds and is still borrowing. Look, we voted for prosperity but we are seeing abject poverty for all Deltans. Anioma should arise and give us somebody else for 2019, somebody with vision to move the state forward,” Idawene said.

He also said Asaba Capital Development Authority, headed by Clement Ofuani as Director General, has N3.5billion in the 2016 budget but the agency has only accessed N80million with one month for the 2016 to wind up.

When contacted about Idawene’s claims, the state commissioner for finance David Edevbie said the issue under review does not fall within his office and directed our correspondent to the commissioner for economic planning Kingsley Emu. But Emu could not be reached as at the time of filing this report.

However, our correspondent also contacted the commissioner for information Patrick Ukah who delayed for days but remained silent on the request for comment by NAIJ.com.

But, he told our reporter that his records were wrong as the budget did well with no appropriate facts to show that the budget did well. He did not comment on the indebtedness of the state.

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