Rivers APC Raises Alarm Over Alleged 10bn Naira Loan Request By Annulled Government

Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) says its attention has been drawn to alleged surreptitious and illegal attempts by the annulled Rivers State Government led by Governor Nyesom Wike to obtain another 10billion naira loan from banks under the false pretense of using such a loan to provide infrastructure.

The Rivers APC in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Mr. Chris Finebone said: “This development was brought to the attention of the APC by the Rivers Progressive Forum [RPF], an organisation that pursues the advancement of Good Governance in Rivers State and the advancement of the welfare of Rivers people”.

The party expressed shock that despite the outcry against the incessant borrowing by the Wike-led administration in Rivers State, this time around the governor and his people have written, mounting pressure on banks to “waive all legal and regulatory provisions designed to prevent abuse of the process and the use of the State’s Monthly Excess Crude Account allocation as collateral” adding that the Rivers State Government is defying all known decency in financial discipline by particularly asking the banks for a waiver of the State Fiscal Responsibility Laws amongst others.

The APC also expressed happiness that the RPF has in its possession and is about to publish copies of what it termed ‘rogue letters’ written by the Wike government to banks requesting for the loan and pressuring them for various waivers in what the RPF refers to as “borrowing Rivers people into perpetual penury”.

“The APC condemns this obvious act of criminality by the Rivers State Governor and his clique of co-travelers. We believe that no one will still be in doubt that the Wike administration in Rivers State is only out to defraud Rivers people of their commonwealth because this cannot be an auspicious time for a government whose existence has been annulled by the tribunal to embark on borrowing even when Federal allocations have significantly shot up since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office.

“The APC joins the Rivers Progressive Forum [RPF] to warn the Wike-led government and those who have chosen to travel this road of perfidy with them, to be conscious of the fact that they will all be held to account for the mindless fraud they have chosen to perpetrate against the good people of Rivers State as the APC joins to report this criminal collaboration to relevant agencies of the Federal Government for necessary action and prosecution of those found culpable.”, the statement concluded.