The management of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State on Tuesday challenged Governor Siminalayi Fubara to account for the N144.2 billion federal allocation acquired by the state within the final 5 months, claiming that there was nothing on the bottom that confirmed that the funds had been accessible. .
However in protection of the governor, the Rivers State Commissioner for Data and Communications, Joseph Johnson, accused the APC of enjoying politics.
The Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee, Chief Tony Okocha, throughout a go to to the Speaker of the State Home of Meeting, Martin Amaewhule, questioned Fubara’s administration of the state’s sources.
Okocha stated: “As an opposition get together within the state, we now have acquired knowledge on the quantity acquired by the Rivers State Authorities from the Federal Allocation from June 22, 2023 to November 2023.
“The Rt Hon. Speaker, it’s our discovering {that a} whooping sum of N144,291,667,791.1 was acquired from the Federal allocation underneath the Governor. This quantity is exterior the state's internally generated income, which is conservatively estimated at N10 billion each month.
“We remorse that this big quantity has not in any method translated into motion within the area of growth of the state. What we see are closely funded avenue processions and media-sponsored rallies in help of pointless political confusion.
“Fifth columnist and disaster entrepreneurs feed fats from our commonwealth. As a celebration, we won’t hesitate to punish any member of our get together who’s a part of the cohort of this gross monetary crime of our expensive Rivers State.
The APC chief urged the Speaker of the Meeting to maintain an in depth eye on the governor, saying: “And for those who do nothing, you’re simply as complicit.”
Reacting, the Speaker of the Meeting, Amaewhule, stated the legislature would proceed to make legal guidelines that might profit the folks whereas amending these which are dangerous to the folks.
He said: “Relaxation assured, the tenth Rivers State Home of Meeting won’t do something exterior the legislation. No matter we do at this time is within the curiosity of the state in order that once we are gone, others who come after us will really feel the impression of the service and laws we supplied to the Rivers folks.
However in a swift response, Data and Communications Commissioner Johnson pressured that the Fubara authorities had been cautious and accountable.
He stated: “Once we come to the accountability discussion board, Rivers folks will see what we now have completed and naturally they are going to know that we’re on observe.
“Whereas it’s nonetheless too early to guage this authorities, I’m certain we now have hit the bottom operating since then.
“He (Okocha) forgot that we gave a N150 billion legacy undertaking for the Ring Highway, which surpasses the N144 billion he’s speaking about. We paid 77 % of it.
“We use 20,000 hectares of land for housing.
“So that you don't simply elevate points or point out figures with out correctly understanding how the federal government works. That's why I stated it was his personal creativeness.
“We’ve promoted civil servants who had not been promoted for greater than eight years. All these monies, for those who calculate them from June to November, communicate volumes about what has been acquired. Our wage invoice stands at N2.6 billion from the promotion of lecturers alone.
“So he has to return to the drafting board and ask what has been completed, what has not been completed and what has been completed.”
