BEVERLY HILLS, CA, October 10, (THEWILL) – The Bayelsa State government Thursday reacted to a news report on an alleged plan by government to obtain a sixty million Euros foreign loan to finance the Maritime Academy at Okpoama, in the state, describing it as ‘unfounded’.
A statement issued by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Alfred Egbegi, said that the scathing remarks being peddled in the media that ‘the decision to secure a foreign loan is wicked and an act of deceit by the present administration’, tends to undermine state interest and was absolutely uncalled for as government does not intend to secure any loans.
According to Mr. Egbegi, the state governor, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson has reiterated that he was not in government to play politics with the development of the state, and that government has not obtained loans to finance ongoing projects and does not intend to take any bonds, but rather a financial aid from the Polish government to build and run the maritime academy and also provide training and facilities, the initial investment which would be recouped within thirty years.
He informed that there was no secrecy surrounding the deal as it requires legislature backing from the state and the relevant federal authorities and Polish legislatures.
The special assistant stated that the Dickson-led administration was poised to provide purposeful leadership in the face of daunting challenges, noting that since the present administration assumed office, the state has not remained the same.
Mr. Egbegi further said that everything the governor has done has been consistent with true democracy, respect for the rule of law and social justice, adding that the CLO’s claim of unprovoked attack on its members by the Dickson administration was a false alarm.
Referring to the origin of the alleged foreign loan story credited to a group which styled itself as ‘Concerned Bayelsans’, including the Richard Kpodoh-led Baraje’s factional New Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, Bayelsa State Chapter, the special assistant observed that the groups’ leadership style ranges from derogatory, inciting to bizarre and passion for falsehood and entrenching oppression.
He recounted that the rugged individualism of Kpodoh as security adviser to erstwhile Governor Timipre Sylva raised security questions, noting that the special security outfit Operation Famou Tangbe which he superintended, was mainly operated as a tool for legalising terror in the state.
Kpodoh and his conspirational forces in the Civil Liberties Organisation he said, were throwing tantrums tailored to satisfy their whims and caprices in order to destroy Bayelsa, having been left heartbroken, hopeless and in limbo at the sudden exit of the immediate past administration.
