Delta State government and the deputy Senate president (DSP) and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of Delta state, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, yesterday took to the trenches over alleged huge debt and poor management of earnings by the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration.
Omo-Agege fired the first shot when he alleged that Okowa, who is the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had nothing to show for the N4.2 trillion earned by the state in the last seven and half years.
Omo-Agege told State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that it was a misconception to tag Delta as a PDP state.
The deputy Senate president said he was in the Villa to confer with the president on national issues and responded to questions on how he intended to upstage the state currently in the firm grip of the PDP.
He said “That is a very serious misconception to tag Delta State, as a PDP state. Delta is very ripe for the taking. We’re determined to achieve this; we’ve been going around each local government, ward by ward, making the case; drawing the attention of the people of the state to the misgovernance.
“And lack of performance on the part of not just Okowa but the PDP-led administration in the past 14 years, but most especially in the last seven and a half years; and the message we’re saying to people is resonating.
We’ve been able to make the case to them, that Delta State is supposedly a very, very rich state and indeed a very rich state given the contributions that we’ve made, not only to the economy of this country but also to the economy of the state, because of the receipts we have gotten from federal allocation, inclusive of a 13 percent derivation and other resources that come to the state by way of IGR.
“By our reckoning, since the Okowa administration came into being, Delta State has received close to about N4.2 trillion and this came, like I said, by way of federal allocation, it came by way of 13 percent derivation, and also about N400 billion that the state has borrowed.
“Only recently, thanks to my brother, the governor of Rivers State, who also made us understand that another N260 billion was given to our state (on account of shortfall payment).
“So, if you look at that, that will be a total of N4.2 trillion that has come to the state. There’s nothing on ground by way of infrastructural development that is commensurate with all of these receipts that come to the state,” he said.
Omo-Agege also alleged that the Okowa’s administration was yet to settle gratuities and pensions of workers for nine years and also failed to commence the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage despite the financial status of the state.
But in a reaction, the state government said the performance of the PDP in Delta had been rated very high since the advent of the 4th Republic in 1999.
The chief press secretary to governor Mr Olisa Ifeajika, said from 1999 when the current democratic dispensation commenced, the PDP had performed quite well in building relevant infrastructure and developing human capital.
He remarked that with the solid foundation laid by previous administrations of PDP in the state, Okowa had continued to build on it for a stronger Delta.
Ifeajika said the PDP governorship candidate in the 2023 elections, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori, by his MORE Agenda, would build do for Deltans from where the Okowa administration would stop.
He said in terms of politics, Delta has always been a PDP state and the figures and evidence are there to show what the party has done for Deltans since 1999 when it came to power in the state.
“Luckily, for Deltans, for every regime, the governors have been wonderful persons and governance has continued to improve with each regime.”
On the debt profile of the state, Ifeajika said the chunk of it was carried over from the previous administration while another part resulted from redeemable contractual obligations.
He said the N150 billion“bridging finance’’ which the state government earlier sought through approval by the House of Assembly did not add to the state’s debt profile “because the facility was not taken.”
“Governor Okowa earlier wrote to the House of Assembly for approval for the bridging finance, with a list of the projects the money would be deployed to, including the ongoing construction of Ughelli-Asaba dualisation.
“Others are the Koka Flyover and interchange, the settlement of pension areas and the completion of the ongoing Leisure Park and Film Village project.
“We also have some projects being constructed at the three new universities established by the state government. All these were contained in the letter the governor sent to the House of Assembly.
“Unfortunately, the money was not obtained as contemplated, but even at that, the opposition in the state had already started shouting that the governor had taken a loan of N150 billion.
“But, unlike Governor Okowa, who informed Deltans about the refunds from onset, and made public his intention to seek N150 billion bridging-finance to fund some projects, his whistle-blowing counterpart did not inform his people about the refund nor approached the state’s legislature for approval to spend the money until that day that he thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the money.
“Note that the state government did not collect the N150 billion facility; that money did not come through. But, in the case of some states, like Rivers, they discounted their monies and collected it up-front. They did not wait for the five years to run, to get the refunds on quarterly installments.
“But even without accessing the N150 billion facility, work has been ongoing on various projects. The Koka Interchange, the Leisure Park and Film Village are nearing completion. The Film Village and Leisure Park will be inaugurated this month.
“Another attempt was made at obtaining the bridging finance, having already got the approval from the legislature but the fund was not collected. This time, it was brought to N100 billion, and N30 billion has now come from the N100 billion requested.
“I need to state that the N150 billion that we did not even take, did not in any way add to the debt profile of the state.
“And, we should also remember that government is a continuum and therefore, the debt profile that you are even talking about was majorly inherited from the past administration.
“From the N30 billion that came, N5 billion was allocated to pensions because the pension figures inherited by this administration was huge, close to N100 billion, but Governor Okowa has defrayed it and brought it to about N24 billion.
“While Delta considered the next administration by not discounting and collecting its N240 billion upfront, other states took their monies up-front without considering the next administration,” he stated.
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