By Akanimo Sampson
Rochas Okorocha, outgone Governor of Imo State in Eastern Nigeria, may land in hot soup if he fails to do a proper handover to his successor, Governor Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by Tuesday midnight.
Ihedioha stated this on Monday at the Government House, Owerri, during the swearing in of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Uche Onyeaguocha and Chief of Staff, Chris Okewulonu.
Accordingly, the governor has ordered the Permanent Secretary, and Head of Service, under Okorocha, to quickly prepare all the necessary documents and hand them over to the SSG, and Chief of Staff, before the midnight.
He also wanted Imo people who desired to have a feel of the dilapidation in Government House, Imo at the moment, to feel free to do so.
The warning is coming days after the Vanguard reported that it has been very difficult for the new governor to operate from the current government house and in addition, he did not have documents to work on.
“I direct Head of Service and Permanent Secretary, to ensure a complete handover of all government properties, the last administration utilized on behalf of Imo people to SSG and Chief of Staff of Imo state government. I want the process to be completed by midnight tomorrow.
“I spoke to Imo people that we will start work we will assume work. We will give no excuses of not performing. We will give dividend of democracy irrespective of the status of the state of facilities I inherited. The government that ended its tenure was not prepared to hand over or ready to receive us. I thank Imo people for receiving us and we shall serve the state with the fear of God,’’ Governor Ihedioha said.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration in Rivers State, one of Nigeria’s big oil and gas states, is troubled by the alleged huge debt profile of the state.
The Debt Management Office claimed that the state is highly indebted. But the Wike administration is claiming that the big oil state is not indebted to any bank in the country.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Paulinus Nsirim, said in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Monday “this misinformation is another attempt by detractors to malign the integrity of the present administration in the state which has since its inception in May, 2015 shown utmost frugality in the management of state resources.
“This appears to be another orchestrated plan to demarket the State through unconfirmed statistics since other forms of negative propaganda had failed. With a healthy monthly internally generated revenue profile of at least N8 billion, the state does not resort to reckless borrowing that will make her run into debts.
“As a matter of deliberate policy, the present administration in Rivers desirous to leave behind a worthy legacy does not embark on white elephant projects that will require bogus financial obligations.’’
While pointing out that the Wike administration operates accounts with only Zenith and Access banks, noting that it has repaid all loans obtained, the state government noted that Governor Wike inherited a commercial bank loan of N15,845,118,108.44 in 2015 which had been liquidated.
“All loans taken by this administration for the infrastructural development of the state from Zenith and Access banks had been liquidated too. The issues of debts owed to contractors, pension arrears etc that the Debt Management Office used to stigmatise the state are
Recurrent and Capital Expenditures which payments are ongoing.
“The Federal Government’s Intervention loans approved for every state of the Federation has a repayment plan that is spread over many years. Rivers State Government has not defaulted on the repayment plan. We do not know where purveyors of this concocted information got their facts before they went to the press to misinform the general public,’’ Nsirim said.
He emphasised that the Wike administration has been prudent in the management of scarce state resources backed by a healthy monthly Internally Generated Revenue, pointing out that since 2015 till now, Wike through a well-articulated fiduciary template has made governance better than how he met it.
According to the permanent secretary, “unlike previous administrations that left behind huge debt profiles, the present administration will not mortgage the future of the state in any way. Government will not be distracted by any form of yellow journalism but will remain focused to fulfill the social contract with the people.’’
