By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
“No sooner Gov. Nyesom Wike was sworn-in as governor of Rivers State than he embarked on indiscriminate borrowing at cut-throat interest rate from Nigerian commercial banks. The borrowing spree was carried out irrespective of the fact that the matter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governorship Candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside contesting the emergence of Gov. Wike was still subsisting in court” said Mr. Chris Finebone, APC’s Publicity Secretary in a statement in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The statement noted that Gov. Wike’s borrowing extravaganza acquired a frightening dimension as soon as he got a favourable Supreme Court judgment affirming his emergence.
“While Gov. Wike engaged in his borrowing bonanza, the Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, consistently raised the alarm that the governor was borrowing away and mortgaging the future of Rivers people cautioning him to have a rethink. However, all our advice was brushed aside by the governor” the statement stressed.
Mr. Finebone recalled that, “exactly on the 1st of July, 2015 the APC uncovered and raised the alarm that there was a strategic plan by Governor Nyesom Wike to obtain loans totalling N100b in the few months he was expected to be in power (in case he lost at the courts as the governor of Rivers State) thereby plunging the state into an abyss of debt and economic servitude.
“APC warned that the good people of Rivers State had ended up in the notorious Lagos buses used in robbing unsuspecting citizens popularly called ‘one chance.’”
“On each occasion, the governor offered future state monthly allocations from the federal government as collateral security spread against less than 40 months of his 48 months tenure. When the governor exhausted the federal allocation window, he was forced to use future dividend earnings to the state from Indorama Petrochemical Company, Eleme as yet another collateral security. The governor only stopped after borrowing over N100b and could not find any more collateral security to obtain further loans.”
“Instead of keeping it honest with Rivers people by acknowledging that he has future, the governor, looked into the eyes of men of God that surrounded him at the Synod of Anglican Diocese of Etche on Sunday and told them what can pass as the most daring white lie of the century when he accused the Buhari administration of reducing his government’s monthly federal allocation in order to undermine his administration. We ask: Is it that Gov Wike forgot what happened? Did he think we have all become so foolish that we have forgotten that he actually borrowed away Rivers State monthly allocations in advance?”
The APC advised Gov. Nyesom Wike to be careful where he takes his dishonest campaigns to especially the house of God.
“He should apologise to Rivers people especially the youths who he has spent their future despite repeated warnings from the APC” the statement finally counseled.
