N636b Debt: Commence Probe on Uduaghan’s Administration, APC Chieftain, Group Charge Okowa
Ddr Ifeanyi Okowa
LAGOS AUGUST 5TH (URHOBOTODAY)-A former deputy chairman of Delta State All Progressives Congress, Dr Cyril Ogodo, has called on Gov¬ernor Ifeanyi to probe the administration of his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in the face of the recent revelation that the previous government left huge debt amounting to over N636 billion.
Accusing the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of mismanaging Delta State treasury, Ogodo told Okowa to commence im¬mediate probe into the awards of contracts by the Uduaghan administration and publish without further delay full extract of his transition commit¬tee report as the treasury of the state should not be traded for politics.
He described as very unfortunate the mismanagement of Delta’s commonwealth, saying that Deltans should consider themselves lucky that the debt is not higher than the N636 billion declared by Governor Okowa, who he said was a major beneficiary of the loots.
Ogodo told National Mirror: “It’s unfortunate that the same rat that ate the fish; is coming out in the public to complain that the fish has been eaten by rat. Who is Uduaghan, who is Okowa, are they not apostles of James Ibori political dynasty?
“Okowa was a Secretary to the State Government, SSG, under the Uduaghan administration, so what is he trying to tell Deltans? Is he saying that he was not part of those who borrow this money without utilising it for the development of Delta State? Or is he try¬ing to tell us that we don’t know that the state was in shamble?
“Does Okowa want to tell us that the N100 billion loan that Uduaghan took and the N20 billion Mr. Sam Obi borrowed we don’t know that he was part of those who initiated it and it went into the drain? Or is he telling us that billions meant for DESOPADEC that never get to the agency, we don’t know that it went into the drain?
“Governor Okowa has nothing new to tell Delt¬ans, he is only trying to make fool of Deltans, by playing the ostrich, be¬cause Deltans are aware of the level of rot that the PDP-led government, which he is a part brought to the state.”
While calling for a probe, he submitted that it is only an APC led gov¬ernment that would bring about the needed change which will pull Delta State out of the rot the PDP has brought upon the state.
Meanwhile, a rights group in the state, Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged, CENTREP, while frown at the debts, challenged the Okowa-led government to purge itself of all sentiments by constituting a probing panel to probe the former governor.
CENTREP, in a statement by its Executive Director, Mr Oghenejabor Ikimi, accused Uduaghan of mortgaging the future of the state.
Ikimi said: “Governor Okowa’s recent claim on the floor of the Delta State House of Assembly that his administration inherited a whopping N636 bil¬lion debt burden from the previous administration of Uduaghan,” was nothing but an “act of pure evil against the downtrodden masses of the state by Uduaghan, who himself was a major contractor in the state.”
He said: “Though we are not oblivious of the fact that the actual debt burden of the state is well over a trillion naira as revealed in the transition committee report submitted to Okowa, we wonder why he has settled for the sum of N636 billion. We therefore call on Okowa, for the avoidance of doubt to immediately publish the full extract of his transition committee report.”
CENTREP said that it was glaring that Uduaghan had mortgaged the future of Delta and her people before he handed over the reins of gover¬nance to Governor Okowa, adding: “We call for an inquest or a probe by the state government to investigate all the debts owed contractors in the state under the watch of the immediate past governor which figure Governor Okowa has liberally put at N539 billion excluding the principal sum of N98 billion owned commercial banks.”
National Mirror
