We call on the EFCC to save the people of Delta State from themselves
A concerned group under the aegis of the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights, CASER, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to urgently investigate the circumstances surrounding the initiation and approval of the Delta State Government collecting a whopping sum of N150 Billion Naira as loan.
According to CASER, the whole idea of the Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration now in its twilight of barely a year to end, to choose to collect such a huge loan, which was swiftly approved with a strange unanimity by the Delta State House of Assembly, in an election preparatory year, possesses all the vestiges of a corrupt scheme to put the money into the pockets of unscrupulous politicians to buy the votes of delegate and voters in the coming party primaries and general elections, respectively.
It says that seven years of the eight-year tenure of the Governor Okowa led administration have passed and it is in its last year that it considered such a huge loan for which it would not be responsible for repaying.
The Executive Director of CASER, Frank Tietie said: “This is nothing but a grand plan between the unscrupulous elements in the Okowa led administration with the irresponsible leadership of the Delta State House of Assembly in an unholy collaboration with commercial banks to plunge Delta State into a blackhole of debts with insidiously wicked interest rates that Delta State may never recover from, just to raise money between and among private bankers and politicians to fund elections. This is unacceptable!
“This loan arrangement is not in the interest of the people of Delta State. It would only benefit the state politicians, who would literally share the money among themselves through phantom and non-existent contracts for services.
“To impose such a huge loan on a state that is already overburdened by debts taken by this same administration of Governor Okowa, is economic suicide and it would not take long before the State becomes too broke that it would not be able to pay salaries of its workers.
“Delta State is a major oil producing state that ranks as one of the highest revenue collectors from the Federation Account, yet there is no commensurate development in the last seven years to justify its high revenues. Poverty and unemployment have been fast on the increase while infrastructural development has been abysmal with substandard execution of contracts to the detriment of the people of the state who don’t get real value for such public expenditure. Is it now that Governor Okowa wants to take a loan to perform in one year the magic that he couldn’t do since seven years in the office? We reiterate that the only goal of taking the loan is self-aggrandizement by politicians to the detriment of the people of the state. What wickedness!
“We would want the EFCC to prevent such humongous stealing and abuse of public funds. Prevention would always be better than cure!
“Therefore, we urge the EFCC to move swiftly to ensure that the highly suspicious loan arrangement is immediately put on hold pending the application of a due diligence analysis by the EFCC before the loan money is disbursed.
“We call on the EFCC to save the people of Delta State from themselves as they appear not to be able to help themselves at the moment. They appear held captive by insensitive politicians they claim to have voted into political power. The majority of the people of Delta State are apparently bewitched and terrorized by fear and poverty that they are unable to criticize their state government.
“We have it on good authority that the public debate on whether to take the loan or not was scheduled for the 10th of May 2022, the members of the Delta State House of Assembly proceeded to secretly debate the loan and unanimously approved it on
