ZIK GBEMRE LAMBASTS GOVERNOR IFEANYI OKOWA: THE LOAN MASTER IS AT IT AGAIN, DELTA STATE PDP-LED GOVERNMENT REMAINS A DISGRACE

• Okowa was formerly known as the “Pothole Road Master.” But he has now graduated to become the “Loan Master”.

With recent reports that the Delta House of Assembly has granted Governor Okowa’s request for N4 billion bank facility to supposedly fund a proposed National Social Housing Programme in the state, I believe without any iota of doubt that Okowa should be dubbed with the Award Winning Loan Governor Of The Year. This is the title, and the award that befits Governor Okowa and his PDP-led Government, but it also best describes his government and the State’s House of Assembly Lawmakers that are nothing but his stooges. Okowa was formerly known as the “Pothole Road Master.” But he has now graduated to become the “Loan Master.”

Reports also noted the said Delta State House of Assembly also granted another request for a N1.2 billion loan from Globus Bank Limited to supposedly provide counterpart funding for 2022 Universal Basic Education Programme (UBEC) projects in the state.

This is a Government that barely has less than 7 months to leave office permanently. The question now is, how on earth will such a government and its so-called State lawmakers be able to execute all they have supposedly mapped out to use the said loans for within the said short period? That in itself tells us that these loans were only requested and hurriedly approved for their political ambitions in 2023, and not for whatever reasons they have elaborated.

Let us be reminded that, just this year alone, the so-called Delta State House of Assembly had on Tuesday June 14th, 2022, approved another N25 billion loan for the State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa. The approved loan, according to the Assembly, was to be borrowed from First Continental Monument Bank. And it was gathered that the loan approval was granted by the Legislature to supposedly enable the State Executive invest into palm plantation, which Deltans are yet to see, and will never see it manifests.

Mind you, this same loan that was approved on the stated date, was coming barely 49 days after the stooge-Sheriff Oborevwori-led Delta State House of Assembly approved for the Executive a controversial N150 billion, said to be a supposed bridging finance facility. And without shame, Governor Okowa had come out then to explain that the said N150 billion supposed “Bridging Finance” facility was not a fresh loan but an advance from the N270 billion owed the state by the Federal Government.

As expected, a lot of well-meaning Deltans and Nigerians had cried foul then because these people just used all that ‘financial Grammer’ to obtain the said money which of course, was what they used to push for Okowa’s 2023 Vice Presidential ambition. Even an advocacy group, the Concerned Nigerians, had urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to investigate the alleged attempt by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State to have diverted the said N150 billion loan.

The convener of the group, Deji Adeyanju, also noted what we have said, that the loan was a last-minute looting to fund Okowa’s Vice Presidential ambition. This is because everyone of us were alarmed that the Delta State House of Assembly approved the loan just a few weeks before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), primary elections. That tells us that the Okowa government obtained the loan for the purpose of looting, and not for any meaningful purpose they are trying to make Deltans believe.

Sometimes I wonder if these people take Deltans as fools. Or that we cannot see through their many lies and deceptions. Does the State and its wealth belong to Governor Okowa and his Delta State lawmakers? Were they not supposedly elected by the people to do nothing else other than to Serve the people?

Were Okowa and the Delta lawmakers supposedly elected to own Delta State and run it aground before they leave office? Is Delta State their families’ estates? Do these people even have human consciences at all? Are they not ashamed of themselves to put Delta State in a permanent debt profile? When will this crazy loans here and there stop? How do you run a State like this and people still clap for them? Must the stated domestic banks accept these sorts of useless loans request from the State government? This is so shameful of the Delta State PDP-led Government, and a disgrace to what good governance should depict.

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