The Chairman, Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro Felix Obuah, has berated the All Progressives Congress (APC), for criticising Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike’s decision to take advantage of the Federal Government-bailout fund of N10 billion for the development of the state.

Describing the criticism as disappointing and naïve, Obuah noted that the governor has given reasons for the bailout, “which is the payment of salaries of the state civil servants and pensioners.” He said that the APC’s disapproval of the governor’s borrowing “is unproductive and borne out of grudges for the continued defeats it has suffered in the hands of the PDP in all elections in the state.”

The PDP chair who disclosed this in a statement signed by Jerry Needam, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, averred that the APC is obsessed with senseless criticism of the policies of the Wike-led PDP government, otherwise, “it should have acknowledged the unambiguous clarification on the subject as captured in the letter of the governor to the Rivers State House of Assembly on the intent for accessing the bailout fund.”

The PDP boss noted that the APC should rather be grateful to Governor Wike “for his prudent and accountable management of resources of the state, against the backlog he met,” insisting that Rivers people, including those doing business in the state, “can feel the air of a new dawn and purposeful governance in the state.”

He observed that Wike - unlike his predecessor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi - is a disciplined administrator, “determined to save Rivers State from reckless misappropriation of public resources, as was the case under the Amaechi administration.”

He noted that all APC-controlled states have accessed the bailout funds from the APC-led Federal Government not less than three times, while the Rivers State Government has not received any. “Yet, the APC states are still complaining of not being able to pay salaries, waiting cap-in-hand to have more from the Federal Government.”

Obuah recalled: “The Amaechi-led APC government in Rivers State owed civil service workers well over seven months salaries, which Governor Wike in his distinctive compassion and love for the Rivers people paid off and cleared other outstanding debts incurred by the Amaechi administration. Surprisingly, the APC did not see anything wrong in all the reckless spending and unnecessary borrowing by the President Buhari administration, in spite of all the stolen funds it claims to have recovered.”

The PDP chair wondered why the APC should pretend to be concerned about prudence in governance, when available impeccable records, showed that President Buhari, in less than one year, has spent three times the sum ex-President Goodluck Jonathan spent in four years on foreign trips and the running of the Presidency.

The PDP, therefore, said that Nigerians demand an explanation from the APC on Buhari’s frequent non-productive foreign trips in the face of crippling economic quagmire the country is facing.

Querying the opposition leaders’ moral strength in criticising Wike, Obuah asked: “What did the APC say when Amaechi, as Governor of Rivers State, paid for university scholarship for all the graduating secondary school students of a private school in Niger State, while the Rivers State students he sent abroad on scholarship were being sent out of schools for not paying tuition fees? Where were the APC leaders when Amaechi wasted the state’s funds on the unproductive monorail and other failed projects in the state?

•Photo shows Bro Obuah.

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