The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Governor Godwin Obaseki to stop securing loans, noting that the N9 billion loan recently approved by the House of Assembly was unnecessary and could plunge the state into financial distress.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Acting Chairman of the state APC, Jarrett Tenebe, said the state is already burdened with a debt profile of N135 billion and $35.6 billion.
He said,, “While it is a monumental disaster that Edo State’s patrimony has been squandered by the Obaseki-led administration with an unassailable, humongous debt profile of N135 billion and $35.6 billion, the governor remains unyielding and unstoppable in his characteristic design to leave Edo State in ruin, by requesting a facility of N17.5 billion a few days ago, which was initially stated to be N9 billion.
“It is important to state that the fiscal budget of Edo State was passed a few weeks ago before the Edo State House of Assembly proceeded on leave without the commencement of the execution of the budget by the executive.
“It is most disheartening that the Edo State Government is now requesting a facility of N17.5 billion with no corollary of a project attached to the said facility and also that the facility is not contained as a loan to be taken in the 2024 fiscal budget just recently passed. A cursory perusal of the entire budget does not reveal where the project for the facility is ever captured.
“Information at the disposal of the members of the Edo State House of Assembly indicates that they were recalled from their holiday or leave by the Speaker on the request of the State Governor for the immediate approval of the said facility, which was said to be N9 billion, but as events unfolded, after the mammoth request by the opposition in the house.
“The rationale for a facility as stupendous as N9 billion for phantom projects, which only existed in the imagination of the Governor, it was discovered that the facility was not even N9 billion but a figure shrouded in secrecy, as much as N17.5 billion, to which the opposition in the house rejected and refused to be part of the approval.
“While it is important to state that the citizens of Edo State have been taken through difficult and hard times by the Obaseki-led administration, it is our request, and most profoundly too, that the Obaseki administration stop these borrowings which its proceeds found their way into his pocket and that of his co-travelers, as Edo State has suffered enough decay in infrastructural and other developmental sectors.”
As of the filing of this report, the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, promised to respond at the appropriate time.
