Group Mounts Pressure On Okowa To Stop Him From Taking N13.6B Loan To Build New State Secretariat

A pressure group, under the auspices of Free Delta Group, have started a campaign to force Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State to rescind his decision to take a N13. 6billion loan recently approved by the Delta State House of Assembly for the building of a new state Secretariat in Asaba, the state capital.

The group in press briefing on Monday in Warri, commercial hub of Delta State, said it would mobilise against Okowa by way of mass protest or legal suit if the state government doesn’t immediately halt the plans to borrow more money which they said would only portray the government as being insensitive to plight of pensioners and other workers who they owned salaries, arrears and other emoluments across the state.

According to the group, it would be inhuman and disservice for Governor Okowa who has always complained of inheriting about N600b debt from the government that preceded him to also wanting to plug the state into more debt when the state was still grappling to meet its obligations.

They queried why building of a new state secretarial which would gulp such huge amount with the state government issuing Irrevocable Standing Payment Orders (ISPOs) to the handling firm, should top the priority of the state when the state government had not be able to maximized the Old and New secretariats housing offices of civil servants built by former governors.

Coordinator of the group, Dr. Prosper Ahworegba who addressed journalists in Warri said that they are shocked and troubled that Okowa was considering going into a borrowing spree again at a time when the state had not been able to defray salaries and arrears of council workers, primary school teachers as well as clear pensioners’ emoluments

“Why is His Excellency, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, fixed on increasing the State’s debt stock for generations yet unborn, when the State isn’t paying accumulated debts, but merely servicing them?, they queried in a press release made available to BigPen Online.

“The debt profile of our dear State is amongst the highest in the country in spite of the huge allocations from Abuja and internally generated revenues.  Yet other than cosmetic rehabilitation of a few roads at prohibitive costs, there is no single signature project in the entire State.

“We are also aware that Delta State is undoubtedly in the top league of debtors amongst the 36 states of the federation despite receiving huge monthly Federal Allocations supplemented with robust internally generated revenue.

They said that the excuses being advance as reason for borrowing of the  money for the supposed project was watery saying; “We strongly disagree with the impression in the national press that, since the creation of Delta State in 1991, most government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), have been operating from private buildings scattered across the State.

“This is mere propaganda, the type that Dr. Josef Goebbels was infamous for, to hoodwink Deltans to allow monumental waste of the State’s resources through this white elephant project. Discerning Deltans can see through the lies.

“Across the State are decayed and/or decaying infrastructure. Our roads are in their poorest state ever; civil servants salaries aren’t regular and in some cases, they are slashed at will; When it drizzles in Asaba, the entire city becomes an extension of River Niger. The main road that leads into Warri, the commercial hub of the State is cratered, potholed and unsightly etc. This is in spite of Delta being rich as an oil-producing State.

“It is bewildering and indeed, most unsettling to note that in the midst of the aforementioned myriad of economic, social and infrastructure challenges bedeviling the State, the Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, with active connivance of the Delta State House of Assembly, is borrowing to build a new State Secretariat. This is most inauspicious, ludicrous inconsiderate, insensitive, most unfeeling and therefore unacceptable.

The group also queried the urgency and necessity to borrow money to build a Secretariat at this time when the State debt profile is already big problem, asking; “what happened to all the Paris Club Debt refunds from the Federal Government?

They also want to know whether the process of awarding the contract for the construction of the said new Secretariat was transparent or whether it was done to reward cronies or a white elephant project to rip off the state.

While saying that their members including all discerning minds in Delta, find it extremely difficult to reconcile why government took the decision, the group called on Okowa to immediately halt any plan to continue or implement the project.

They warned that if government fails to heed their call, they would use every peaceful but available means possible including mobilising protesters massively to prod the state government to stop the borrowing.