Okowa’s N120 Billion Loan Sparks Protest In Delta As Youths Block East-west Road

The recent loan that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was granted, on Monday, sparked a protests by a group of youths at the heavily traveled Effurun/Agbarho section of the East-West Road in Delta State, drawing criticism for the governor’s administration.

BIGPEN NIGERIA (www.bigpenngr.com) reports that a large number of youths had blocked the major road for hours to obstruct traffic as a way of expressing their ire at the governor’s N120 billion credit facility granted by the state House of Assembly.

The protesters, who were yelling anti-state government chants, accused Governor Okowa of mortgaging the future of their children for his own and those of his political benefactors.

They asserted that it was unacceptable for the governor to receive a loan only a few months before the end of his term in office and that the loan was intended to help him pursue his vice presidential nomination of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party in Nigeria.

The demonstrators specifically warned Premium Trust Bank not to grant the governor any credit facility as part of their attack on some state commercial banks.

They claimed that prior loan facilities provided to the state government were misused to finance political activities to the detriment of the state’s residents.

According to the protesters, DESOPADEC, federal allocations, as well as locally generated revenue, have not resulted in any tangible projects being completed in the more than seven and a half years of Okowa’s administration, despite the state’s borrowing binge.

Therefore, the youths holding various placards warned banks against providing the governor with loan facilities, claiming that doing so would be at their own risk.

The protesters, who carried placards bearing messages such as “don’t mortgage Delta” and “We say no to N120B loan,” among others, charged the Okowa-led administration with mortgaging the future generations of Deltans who had not yet been born due to the state’s high debt level.

Youths in the state are tired of Governor Okowa’s penchant for borrowing to the detriment of the people, according to one of the protesters who identified himself as Comrade Kelly Umukoro and National Youth President, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), while speaking to reporters on the scene.

The protesters, according to him, gathered under the auspices of concerned parties from a number of civil society organizations (CSOs) to express their displeasure over the most recent loan granted to the state governor.

Umukoro said; “We have seen that the present state government wants to sell us for the future of their children and themselves.” You have a few months to leave the government, and you are borrowing another N120 billion.

“Is it that we are sponsoring Okowa’s ambition to be vice president of Nigeria with Delta state money? Did we have any meeting as Deltans to say we want to use our treasury to sponsor Governor Okowa who has not been able to improve the lives of Deltans?

“No infrastructure, for eight years you have been able to do one flyover and you are celebrating it. What does he need this money for? The answer is simple, he needs it to oil his vice presidential ambition.

“As critical stakeholders, we are saying no, never. We are saying our children cannot pay debt that was not used by their fathers. Okowa should have pity on us. Delta owns a State university in Abraka, school fee was increased. Delta state University is like a private university where students pay N250,000.

“With all the ways of getting money, the governor is still interested in taking out more loan. As Deltans we are saying any bank that gives loan to Okowa is doing that on their detriment. If they are doing a giveaway, they should make it clear.

“We are not going to pay. “We are demanding that banks stop lending to Okowa because the money in his coffers has not been used wisely.”

Prince Kehinde Taiga, another protester, who identified himself as the national president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), criticized the state government for what he called subpar infrastructure development despite the substantial income the state has received.

Taiga questioned why Delta would borrow despite significant state funding and internally generated income when there was nothing to show for it.

Onoriode Emmanuel, another protester, expressed dissatisfaction with the state’s level of development, noting that there are no obvious projects to show for the sizable loans that have been collected.

He characterized the Delta State House of Assembly as a rubber stamp because they quickly approve every loan that the state executive requests.