N120bn Loan: Youths Protest, Warn Banks to Stop Granting Okowa Facility

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

Hundreds of protesting youths, yesterday, blocked the ever-busy Effurun/Agbarho section of the East-West Road in Delta State over the approval of the State House of Assembly to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to take more loans barely four months to the end of his administration as governor.

The protesters specifically warned commercial banks in the country to desist from granting additional fresh loans to the Governor Okowa-led government at the peak of political activities in the state, alleging that such loans were being diverted to fund political activities at the detriment of the people of the state.

They condemned the continued “borrowing spree” by the PDP-led government, saying there was nothing to show for the huge loans and federal allocation that the state has received in the over seven and a half years of Okowa’s administration.

The youths under the aegis of concerned stakeholders from several civil society organisations (CSOs) warned that any bank still granting loans to Okowa-led government “is doing so at their own peril”.

The protest is coming on the heels of the recent N120 billion loan request by the state government which had a record time approval by the state House of Assembly.

 Armed with placards with various inscriptions which included: “Don’t mortgage Delta,” “We say no to N120B loan”, they accused the Okowa-led government of mortgaging the future Deltans yet-unborn over the high debt profile of the state.

Addressing journalists at the venue of the protest, National Youth President, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), Comrade Kelly Umukoro, said Delta State youths rejected and condemned the recent loan by the state government.

“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 Governor 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.”