The Edo chapter of the All Progressives Congress has called for the rejection of loan proposal urged Governor Godwin Obaseki to stop securing loans, noting that the N9 billion loan recently approved by the House of Assembly which it said was discovered to actually be N17.5 billion was needless and would plunge the state into financial distress.
The Acting State Chairman of the APC, Emperor Jarrett Tenebe while addressing press conference on Friday said the state was already suffering under a debt profile of N135 billion and $35.6 billion.
He said the state house of assembly recently passed the 2024 budget before it went on leave without the commencement of the execution of the budget and that there is no attachment of what the new facility being sought would be used.
Tenebe said “Information at the behest of the members of the Edo State House of Assembly is to the effect that they were recalled from their holiday or leave by the Speaker on the request of the State Governor for the immediate approval of the said facility which according to them were said to be N9 billion but as event unfolded, after the mammoth request by the opposition in the house as to the rationale for a facility as stupendous as N9 billion for fathom projects which only existed in the imagination of the Governor, it was discovered that the facility was not even N9 billion but a figure wrapped in secrecy as much as N17.5 billion to which the opposition in the house rejected and or refused to be part of the approval.
“While it is important to state that the citizens of Edo State have been taken through difficult and hard times by the Obaseki led administration it is our request and most profoundly too that the Obaseki administration to stop these borrowings which its proceeds found their way into his pocket and that of his co-travelers, as Edo State has suffered enough decay in infrastructural and other developmental sects.
“Edo State is yearning for a bold change hence we are using this medium to call on the Edo People to completely reject the PDP and their shenanigans and vote massively for the APC that offers the best alternative to the present administration,” he added.
