The Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has come out to clear the air on recent statements by Governor Adams Oshiomole that he took a $75 million World Bank loan because the PDP government had drained the country’s treasury.
Speaking via a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Chris O Nehikhare, the PDP gave a breakdown of the state’s debt profile, describing Governor Oshiomole’s allegations as the “statement of a drowning politician”
Read the statement in full:
I was quite shocked to read statements credited to the Comrade Governor on why he sought and took an additional loan of $75m from the World Bank even though he has not accounted for how he spent the first tranche and all other loans he has prodigally requested for and squandered.
By the time the Prodigal governor Adams Oshiomhole took over government in November 2008, the debt profile of the state was less than N5b but today from the world bank, capital market, and other financial institutions, the state is said to be indebted to well over N250b. “…he should be ashamed to talk about Edo State debt because he has mortgaged the future of our state…” Chief Dan Orbih added.
The Governor’s statement was crude, uncivilized, lacked focus, full of falsehood and empty on substance and facts.
We have substantially informed Edo people on the Governor’s shenanigans especially on his financial recklessness, fund misappropriation and garrulousness and as such, we won’t dwell on it.
However, you will notice that in his 15 minutes of verbal diarrhea, the governor made all sort of wild allegations against the last PDP federal government. He did not present one shred of evidence to back his hate campaign, falsehood and use of language not befitting of an elected official of state but dwelled on beer parlor gist and rumors to justify why he needed to borrow more money.
“The allegations are nothing but unrealistic expression of sentiment by a drowning politician. No matter the level of noise Adams Oshiomhole has decided to make, the reality is that at the last election the people of the state rejected him and APC”
As a party, Edo PDP has never said we are against the loan, our problem is with the manager, Governor Adams Oshiomhole who cannot be trusted with Edo state funds and resources as he is reckless and unaccountable.
All through his tirade against the last PDP federal government, he did not explain or account for the N712b his administration has received in the last six and half years. He kept mute on why even though he claims that EDSG invested in the Azura Power Plant project and listed as one of the project on the N25b loan sourced from the capital market, Edo state is never mentioned as an investor or shareholder in any prospectus especially the one International Finance Corporation, IFC, used to mobilize $212.5m for the project. IFC confirmed that the project is been developed by a consortium of investors led by Amaya capital limited. The other shareholder and investors are America Capital Energy and Infrastructure, the Africa infrastructural investment fund, Al-diyah international ltd, Pan African infrastructure development fund, and the Assisted Resource Management Company Limited. In the new spirit of change and transparency the comrade governor should come out and tell us if he invested on our behalf or on his behalf!
The question we continue to ask is would Edo state have needed to borrow N14.7b ($75m) if Governor Adam had not “taken” N42b in the last six years under the lame heading “urgent security challenges” akin to what the legend Fela referred to as “Authority Stealing”! There is nowhere any man can justify taking that amount of money (N500m –N700m monthly) in a state where there is no Boko Haram, where the only security issues that have been reported since he assumed authority are a few missing cars that have since been recovered.
The governor once again like the busy body he is, tried to impugn on the integrity of Dr Okonjo-Iwela using the China Eximbank loan as a launch pad even though the former Minister explained thus: “The alleged diversion has no substance, for the simple reason that the Kano-Lagos project was not even among the projects presented for funding by the China EXIMBank for several strategic infrastructural projects across the country,”
“In fact, it was the Lagos–Ibadan rail project, not Lagos-Kano rail project that was proposed in the original application to the China-EXIMBank. But in the end, no funds were assigned for the Lagos-Ibadan rail project by the China-EXIMBank,” the statement said.
The projects listed for funding with the China-EXIMBank loan, she explained, were at various stages of progress the expansion of four International Airport Terminals in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt ($500million); Abuja Light Rail ($500million); Zungeru Hydro-electric power project ($984million) and Galaxy Backbone project ($100million).
“The procedure is that funds for approved loans remain in the China-EXIMBank and are released directly to the Chinese firm executing the contract only after the presentation of duly certified proof of work by the responsible Ministry, in this case it would have been the Federal Ministry of Transport, based on the agreed milestones,” the statement said.
“For the sake of emphasis, the China-EXIMBank does not disburse money directly to government and therefore the issue of diversion does not arise.” She concluded.
Can governor Adams say same about the world bank loan he has hoodwinked the country to get? Or any other loan he has received since he became governor? We challenge him to list what he has done with the loans and allocation totaling almost N1tr he has received in the last six and half years!
#Edo people have a story to tell
