A group, the Akwa Ibom Change Ambassadors, ACA, has called on Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, to disclose the level of indebtedness of the state.
In a press release made available to journalists in Uyo, the state capital, the group said there was a wall of difference between the debt profile of the state and whatever loan it took from banks and other sources.
It said: “The Governor is only being economical with the truth. It is always in his character to twist facts. Everybody, including people at the State Ministry of Finance he is sending us to, know that the state is owing well over N400 billion to Julius Berger, CCECC, NigerPet and other contractors including Alcon which has withdrawn from the airport. He also owes local contractors including members of his family who are contractors everywhere in the state. One of them is being owed over N500 million. That is the kind of debt we are talking about.”
THe group further said one of the reasons Governor Akpabio wants to install Udom Emmanuel as a successor is, “so that he can keep quiet, pay the debt silently even when it will affect the new government of their dream.”
“Even the loans he collected were for specific things. Which of the things has he done with the loans he collected. Work has stopped on all sites run by Julius Berger and CCECC. Have you asked why? The only things he is concentrating on are the two hotels in Uyo and Ikot Ekpene and his elitist Specialist Hospital at Itam. Do we really need those hotels? Who will stay in them? Is it only his family members and cronies who are the only ones he has empowered who will stay in all the rooms there? You can only build two hotels in a place where the local economy can support its use.
“The Specialist Hospital is built so that his imaginary elites can go and get treatment there at a cost the local people cannot pay. It is also to give jobs and contracts to his cronies. Do you know that his personal physician, Dr Essien, will be the Chief Medical Director at the place and the hospital he goes for check up in Lagos is the one managing it? Have you seen the agreement signed by the group? Akwa Ibom is being signed into slavery. We must rise against this,” the statement said.
The group said these debts were owed as a result of the gross mismanagement of resources and the Father Christmas role the State Governor is playing outside the state.
“For a state that has so much to owe is a wicked thing. More so, these debts came because our State Governor is a wasteful spendthrift. If he hears that Councillors in a local government in faraway Sokoto State want to impeach their Chairman, he will take our money and rush there to try to stop it. He meddles in things he should not. He wants to be seen as the greatest but history is already recording him as a prodigal son who came to meet the wealth his father kept for him and frittered it away on inconsequential politicking and outlandish unsolicited politically motivated charity abroad.”
The group therefore urged Akwa Ibom people to vote for change, adding that, ” change is Obong Umana Umana of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He is organized. He is forthright and will not be a stooge and debtor.”
Comentários