…Debt Profile Increases To N600bn
…Amaechi Under EFCC Watch
It is no longer news that the coffer of the Government of Rivers State under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is now emptied. Thus the government now resorts to borrowing to keep the state afloat.
Precisely on the 29th January, 2014, Gov. Chibuike Amaechi sent a letter to the “factional” Rivers State House of Assembly headed by an embattled speaker, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Dan Amachree requesting for approval of a N100bn loan. Without much ado the controversial speaker and his team gave their consent to the loan.
The factional RSHA through its speaker Dan Amachree said that the loan would enable the Governor to complete all ongoing projects in the State.
Many true Rivers indigenes expressed deep concern over the Governor’s request of N100bn loan, a week after he has signed into law a budget of N485.5bn.
Just last week the divided RSHA gave another approval to the governor to spent N30bn out of the N53bn saved so far by the state government.
The way and the manner in which the governor and his factional members of the RSHA are going, according to financial and political analysts, there is every tendency that they will throw the state into financial mess in no distant time.
A group which calls itself Rivers Integrity and Development Forum, released a press statement tagged, “Why EFCC MUST INTERVENE IN RIVERS STATE NOW”!
According to the forum, in its years of existence the Rivers State has never been in such dire straits, that is passing through now, due to financial difficulties and reckless spending.
The press statement which was jointly signed by its state chairman, Warigbani Ezekiel and the General Secretary, Comrade Sotonye George, the group said, “In every direction one looks, Rivers people are confronted with the linear descent into the abyss of financial recklessness and outright stealing of government funds, gross abuse of office, a non-challant Manichean resolve to destroy public institutions in the state, demolition of communities and outright take over and sales of community lands and a steely resolve, bordering on dementia, to sale Rivers locks, stocks and barrels to the Governor’s coterie of business friends and fronts”.
The Rivers Integrity and Development Forum condemned the attitude of the state Governor for showing scant regard to transparency in governance which the group alleged that the Governor’s trumpeted infrastructure development remain at best a ubiquitous façade to shield monumental mismanagement, hyper-contract inflation, outright fraud and gross abuse of office.
The forum stated that despite the huge inflow to the state as statutory receipts and internally generates revenue the state has an external debt profile that is unnerving, while projects executed or claimed to have been executed by government do not match the funds that have accrued to the state from the federal allocation.
The press statement reads in part, “At inception of office, Gov. Amaechi promised Rivers people that he was saving N1bn monthly on their behalf. This was good news as the saved funds could be a kind of state “Sovereign Wealth Fund”. From the date of the promised to this month is a clear 58 months. That means N58bn have been saved for Rivers people. This is in addition to the over N37bn saving from compulsory levies. But surprisingly inspite of the huge sums saved, thus far the state is mired in debts. In a clearly concocted heist Governor Amaechi has hidden under in the facade of infrastructural development to borrow Sundry sums of money, today, Rivers people are embarrassingly at a loss as to the exact debt profile of the state, which is estimated to be between N250bn to N500bn”.
The group pointed out that due to the indiscriminate borrowing style of Governor Amaechi and the factional RSHA members, top principal government functionaries are totally confused how much the Governor and his team have borrowed so far.
“For instance, the State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Chamberlain Peterside has given different figures at different fora with respect to the indebtedness of the state. In October, 2010, he claimed the state has borrowed N30bn from the Zenith and GTB, in September 2011, the same Commissioner said the state had borrowed N20bn again from Zenith bank. Later that year, Mr. Peterside was reported as saying that government had again borrowed N100bn as infrastructural loan. Yet, the former speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Dan Amachree reportedly announced that the House of Assembly had approved the borrowing of N120 which the Commissioner of Finance later explained would be sourced from Access, Guaranty Trust and First Banks. Is it possible that the governor and his key aides do not know how much they have borrowed?, the group asked rheritorically.
The organization pleaded with the Governor to tell Rivers people and Nigerians the actual debt profile of the state since he assumed office.
In so many fora, the chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Felix Amaechi Obuah has accused the governor of using the state resources to sponsor the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
At Eleme while addressing a cross section of the members of the Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI), Hon. Obuah alleged that the Governor spent over N.5bn to mobilize APC supporters from Edo, Imo and Anambra during the visit of some chieftains of the party namely: Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande and others to the state.
The PDP chairman further accused Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of spending close to N100bn to support APC during the Anambra State gubernatorial election.
The recent APC registration exercise in the state according to reliable sources gulped billions of naira. Lack of funds in the state treasury has hampered several projects as contractors have abandoned sites. The Iloabuochi/Eagle Island link road has been abandoned since last year. Due to absence of fund, the state government has been politicizing the Trans Kalabari road. Out of N28bn only N4bn has been disbursed to the contractor handling the “much politicized” Trans Kalabari link road.
Several road projects have been halted such as the Egbelu/Ogbogoro road and the Rumuolumeni road all in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
According to social commentators, if the current level of borrowing in the state continues, Governor Amaechi’s successor will be in a very big financial crisis. This will no doubt have negative effect on the infrastructural development of the state in 2015 and beyond.
Meanwhile knowledgeable sources hinted our crime reporter that, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has concluded plans to re-open its casefile involving N20bn against Governor Amaechi.
This was a case the Governor was involved while as a speaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly. The Rivers State Governor had been under probe for the N20bn by the Crimes Commission in 2006, before he became a Governor.
The Governor Amaechi, then as a speaker of RSHA was said to have been allegedly embezzled N20bn and acquired various properties for himself. The allegation against the Governor also include: illegal acquisition of distressed bank building with the sum of N400, and House at N650m. These properties are said to be located along the popular Olu Obasanjo road in Port Harcourt, Capital City of Rivers State. ###
