Concerned stakeholders of Delta State drawn from several Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have cautioned commercial banks against giving out more loans to the Delta State Government.

The scores of stakeholders gave the warning on Monday morning when they blocked the Federal Junction section of the East-West Road in protest of the recent N120 billion loan request by the State Government.

The protesters accused the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led government of mortgaging the future Deltans yet-unborn, considering the high debt profile of the state.

Bearing placards with inscriptions such as: “don’t mortgage Delta,”; “We say no to N120B loan,” they insisted that the concerned banks would be giving out the loan at their own peril, as the state will not pay back.

Addressing newsmen, one of the protesters, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) Youth wing President, Comrade Kelly Umukoro, said: “We have seen that the present state government wants to sell us for the future of their children and themselves. You have few months to leave government, and you are borrowing another N120 billion.

“Is it that we are sponsoring Okowa’s ambition to be vice president of Niger with Delta state money? Did we have any meeting as Deltans to say we want to use our treasury to sponsor Gov. Okowa who has not been able to improve the lives of Deltans?

“No infrastructure, for eight years you have been able to do one flyover and you are celebrating it. What does he need this money for? The answer is simple, he needs it to oil his vice presidential ambition.

“As critical stakeholders, we are saying no, never. We are saying our children cannot pay debt that was not used by their fathers. Okowa should have pity on us. Delta owns a State University in Abraka, school fee was increased. Delta state university is like a private university where students pay N250,000.

“With all the ways of getting money, the governor is still interested in taking more loan. As Deltans we are saying any bank that gives loan to Okowa is doing that on their detriment. If they are doing giveaway, they should make it clear.

“We are not going to pay.

We are demanding that banks should not give Okowa anymore loan because the money in his coffers, he has not been able to use it judiciously”.

Another protester, Onoriode Emmanuel, expressed dissatisfaction with the level of development in the state, noting that despite the huge loans collected, there are no tangible projects to show.

He described the Delta Assembly of being rubber stamp as they easily approve every loan sought by the state executive.

On his part, President of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Prince Kehinde Taiga, noted that despite huge allocations to the state, as well as internally generated revenues, the state us still underdeveloped. (The Nation)

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