Delta group protests alleged Gov Okowa’s N120bn loan

A group under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society today protested against Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa’s alleged new loan of N120 billion.

The group blocked the ever-busy Effurun-Ughelli expressway bearing placards with various inscriptions such as “Say no to N120b loan to fund Atiku election,” “We say no to any Loan,” “If you release the loan we will make this state ungovernable,” “We reject Sheriff and the more-loan agenda” and “Don’t Mortgage Delta.”

Convener of the civil society group, Kelly Efemena, said: “We have seen that the present Delta State Government is about to sell the people of the state for the future of their children. A new bank allegedly owned by the state governor is the bank about to release the N120 billion to the state governor, Sen. Okowa.

“Deltans are saying that any bank that gives loan to the state governor Okowa will be doing it at its own [risk] because we, Deltans, are saying no to any load and we will continue to reject it.”

He further said: “There is no need [for] another loan when you have not finished using the one already collected before now. [For] all the money collected, only one flyover was built and the other we have not seen.

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“Before Okowa became governor, as a student we have never paid school fees above N20,000, but today we are paying close to N70,000 as school fees.”

The National president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Prince Kahinde Taiga said: “We are here to tell the government that we can not continue to remain in Delta State as an underdeveloped state. Democracy is what we are practising not tribal-cracy.”