Group raises alarm over plans to convert A’Ibom’s loans to FG bonds

By Nse Peter

A group, Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) has kicked against Governor Udom Emmanuel’s plan to convert Akwa Ibom government’s bad loans into federal government bonds, saying that servicing such bond “will be a huge burden on the next generation”.

Akwa Ibom State government is said to owe several commercial banks billions of naira incurred during the immediate past administration of Mr. Godswill Akpabio.
With the dwindling cash flow to the state government, Governor Emmanuel has asked for legislative approval from the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to restructure the bad loans in order to restore fiscal stability to the state. The bond will have a tenor of 15 to 20 years.
COHRD said the development was an “incontrovertible evidence of the gross failure of governance in Akwa Ibom State and the shameful, scandalous and criminal waste of public funds by the erstwhile administration of Sen. Godswill Obot Akpabio.”
The group in a statement released, Tuesday, by its convener, Mr. Inibehe Effiong urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to consider requests by state governments to convert their loans to federal government bonds on individual merit, arguing that it should first investigate whether such loans were properly utilised by the affected states in consonance with the accountability mantra of the present government.
“It is common knowledge that Mr. Akpabio had obtained huge loans from banks to service his insatiable escapades and primitive ostentation and profligate lifestyle at the peril of the state. It is on record that recently, Diamond Bank Plc, one of the banks that the state is indebted to, published a bad loan of N5.8 billion obtained by Mr. Akpabio,” the group said.
It appealed to President Buhari to urgently come to the aid of Akwa Ibom by including the state in its asset recovery and anti - corruption drive for the sake of justice and in the interest of future generations.