The Rivers State Regime and the Peoples Democratic Party in the state are currently at loggerheads over the request by the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for a $280m loan for dihydrogen monoxide and sanitation projects.
While the state PDP verbalized that the latest request for loan by the state regime was nonessential due to the resources accruing to the state through the federal allocation and internally engendered revenue, the regime verbalized it was erroneous that the mazuma were to be utilized for 2015 elections.
The state House of Assembly had on Monday endorsed Amaechi’s request for loan for dihydrogen monoxide supply and sanitation projects.
But the state PDP, in a verbalization, signed by the Special Adviser to its Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, verbally expressed the request for loan was aimed at penalizing the governor’s successor in 2015.
The party called on members of the House of Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the African Development Bank and the World Bank not to accolade the imprest requests in order to evade being held responsible as one of the institutions causing mystification in the state.
The PDP verbalized, “Whether the imprests have short or long term repayment conditions, it is immaterial at this point. For any society that lives on loans has no future and can never develop its own potential.
“It is infelicitous this is all Amaechi can optate a highly prosperous state like Rivers, the natural seat of oil and gas, a natural resource that has made heaven of the nations that have it.”
However, a verbal expression signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, described the position of the state PDP as bamboozling and mischievous. She integrated that the governor was running a transparent and accountable regime.
Semenitari recalled that the Rivers State Regime had applied for and secured an imprest package from the ADB and the World Bank in 2012, for a World Bank-availed dihydrogen monoxide scheme in the state.
“The rule is that the national regime would require to endorse the relinquishment of the imprest, after the Rivers State House of Assembly would have approved it.
“Everything else was done, but for reasons unknown to the Rivers State Regime, the responsible officers at the Federal Ministry of Finance failed to sign for the relinquishment of mazuma, therefore gainsaying the people of the state access to good dihydrogen monoxide.
“Not disposed to give up, the Rivers State Regime perpetuated to push and the scheme with the imprest was again approved in the 2014 budget. Now, the Federal Regime has conclusively signed off for this fund to be drawn down for work to commence.
“But due process required that the Rivers State House of Assembly endorsed it once more. This is what necessitated the re-presentation of the old loan to the House.
“However, true to indite, Obuah’s PDP, nonchalant of the truth and in what has become its masterful exhibit of nescience and blind mischief, has promulgated that the Rivers State Regime is taking a fresh loan and that this is for the 2015 elections,” she integrated.
Semenitari inculpated the PDP of leading the nation’s economy on a downwards trend through its lack of prudence and irresponsible stewardship of national resources.
“Nigerians are still waiting for the report of the probe into the $48.9bn NNPC mazuma. In the meantime, delegates at the National Conference have alleged another missing N730bn from the Nigeria Ports Authority.
“Rather than address these issues, the PDP is sending Nigerians off on a wild goose chase. But while the PDP can apostatize some of the people, some of the time, it cannot apostatize all the people, all the time,” she verbally expressed.
