Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

APC, PDP differ on N39.4 billion World Bank loan

By Seye Olumide
29 July 2015   |   6:03 am
LAGOS State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for hastily obtaining a N39.4 billion loan from the World Bank.
Ambode

Ambode

Fashola-

Governor Babatunde Fashola

LAGOS State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for hastily obtaining a N39.4 billion loan from the World Bank.

The party urged the governor to rescind the decision pending the book check on all previously obtained loans in the state, especially by the administration of immediate past governor,Babatunde Fashola.

But in a quick response to the PDP, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Habib Haruna, while saying the loan in question was initiated and finalised by the Fashola-led government disclosed:

“It was not that Governor Ambode approached the World Bank to ask for a fresh loan as the PDP is insinuating.”

In a statement yesterday, the PDP spokesman, Taofik Gani, said Ambode is too weak to fight corruption and block leakages in the state with the continual services of the tax consultant firm, Alpha Beta, which the party claimed is milking the state of her revenue.

The PDP hinged its position on the reports of the World Bank loan and the recent announcement by Ambode to scrap the state’s Finance and Administration Department whilst renaming it Administration and Human Resources Department.

According to the PDP, the history of loans in Lagos is very embarrassing and has plunged the state into local and foreign debts running into trillions of naira.

“Why will a state still run after World Bank loan when such a state realises an average of N27 billion naira as monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)?

“Governor Ambode should have a rethink and toll the line of frugality,” the stament reads.

The PDP, however, demanded a detailed and public defence of the World Bank loan to justify such exercise at this time.

The PDP reiterated that Ambode’s administration might not serve any different purpose from the two previous administrations in the areas of amassing unwarranted loans and fighting corruption in the state.

“Governor Ambode does not have the will and cannot exert his authority to fight corruption in Lagos state, otherwise all a serious governor ought to do in a state like Lagos was to block the leakages and the monthly IGR now standing at N27 billion will definitely move up. But alas! This governor is jittery to fight corruption and block the financial leakages because the state’s tax consultant firm, Alpha Beta, is believed to be the company of the governor’s godfather.

“Until the services and activities of the firm in the state are probed, Lagosians will continue to hear figures of loans in spite of the enormous IGR. It is also laughable that rather than probe the finance and administration of the state, the governor has decided to be diversionary by merely renaming the ministry.

“We ask to know whether this is also deliberate to cover up the numerous alleged fraud, mismanagement and embezzlement going on in the state since 1999. It is our strong belief that Ambode is too weak to fight corruption in the state.”

Haruna, who urged the PDP to be constructive in the way and manner it criticises Ambode-led government, said:

“The party needs to be constructive in criticizing the ruling party and not just launch out to mislead the people of the state.”

The governor’s Chief Press Secretary also debunked the rumour that the government has discovered that the actual debt profile of Lagos was N880 billion instead of the widely reported N420 billion debts the last administration claimed to have incurred.

According to Haruna, there is nothing like that. The people of Lagos should continue to support Ambode and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

0 Comments