LAGOS APRIL 11TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has condemned the seven-day ultimatum issued on Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to provide information on details of the budgetary allocations and actual spending on primary school education in Delta State.
SERAP, a non-governmntal organisation had on Saturday asked the Governor to disclose details of the budgetary allocations and actual spending by the government to provide access to free and quality primary school education between 2015 and 2019. The group had also given the governor a seven-day ultimatum to, upon which, appropriate legal actions would be instigated by SERAP.
Reacting to the demand and ultimatum while addressing newsmen in Warri,Delta State on Thursday, Onuesoke said he expected SERAP to follow due process in making the request by initially making a formal letter of request to the governor instead of issuing ultimatum.
Onuesoke who described SERAP ultimatum and threat to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it disclosed that majority of Delta state public schools are in very good state compared to whatever exists anywhere in Nigeria.
Onuesoke who agreed that the state of Okotiebor Primary School, Sapele, Delta State is totally unacceptable, he, however argued that using that as yard stick to measure the standard of primary school infrastructure and educational quality in the state is a calculated attempt to rubbish Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who had been performing excellently well in the educational sector.
“Besides, it looks as if SERAP do not do thorough investigation before embarking on its demand and threat. If it did, the group would have discovered that primary school management is funded directly from Abuja revenue allocation to the LGAs.
“Go and check your records, primary schools are under SUBEB management which are the responsibilities of the LGAs, while secondary schools are managed by PPEB which are funded by the state government.
“SERAP should summon the LGA chairmen in Delta state and indeed all other states for accountability. I thought they should wisely collapse their demand into the quest to restructure Nigeria so that the states should take over full management of their states and LGAs rather than using a lopsided partitioning of the tier of government,” he argued.