The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the approval of N50 billion loan by the state House of Assembly to the state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu as needless.
According to Zadok Akintoye, the party’s Director of Media and Publicity in the state via a statement issued on Sunday, he carpeted the lawmakers for being a rubber stamp legislators for expressly granting the governor’s request without weighing its pros and cons.
PDP emphasized that the request of the governor which ought to had been properly scrutinized by the assembly will further compound the debt burden of the state.
The statement partly read that, “the recent approval by the Ondo State House of Assembly for the Rotimi Akeredolu SAN led Ondo State Government to access a loan of 50 billion naira calls for deep concern.
“While we are well aware that states may access loans from the capital market to finance projects that may not be covered by available resources, our concern is that our dear Ondo state is doing so at a time when its financial inflows from Federal Allocation, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and other earnings from past investments of the state, are at a fairly steady level.
“Considering our present domestic debt profile of about N52 billion (as at 2018) and an external debt profile of about $50m, it is worrisome to see that the Akeredolu-led government is resorting to further borrowing rather than reducing the debt per revenue burden on the state.
“We also note the quick passage of the bill by the State House of Assembly authorising the governor to access this loan and would like to draw the attention of this honorable members vested with the mandate of the people to act, speak and defend the interest of our people, to the failure of the Executive arm of government to publicly present a detailed and audited account of funds received and spent on the behalf of the people since this government came into being”
Responding to the allegations raised by the PDP, Donald Ojogo, the state Commissioner for Information disclosed that the N50b loan bond was intended to accelerate the various ongoing projects across the state.
While urging residents to disregard the claims of the PDP Ojogo emphasized that the bond as being insinuated with not be directly handled by the state government but by the capital market and the banks involved.
The bond as we all know is a N50 billion bond that was approved by the House of Assembly on Thursday. That bond is meant to enhance not just to sustain the development that has been achieved but to further engender and sustain development in the state.
“From that bond, 50 kobo or 50 cents of that money is not coming into government purse. It is between the capital market and the banks where the fund will be domicile.
“Disregard opposition, opposition will always talk, it is part of their job to talk. We all know that the money would not be paid into government’s purse but it will be used to fund all these ongoing and new capital projects directly.”
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