ASABA/Nigeria: The Delta state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has reacted to the comment accredited to the former South South Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Cairo Ojougboh on the state his running the state without a budget for the fiscal year 2017.
Debunking the statement through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Charles Aniagwu, the governor stated the as the 2019 polls draw near, such allegations is bound to arise.
The statement stated that the likes of the former chairman is being intimated by the achievements of the administration in the midst of national recession.
“We are very much aware that as the 2019 Polls draw near, the likes of Cairo Ojougboh who obviously are intimidated by the modest achievement of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa even in the midst of national recession would resort to outright blackmail”.
The governor stated that that he had made it clear that he and his team shall remain focussed and committed to delivery of programmes of government as spelt out in the SMART agenda.
He stated that the budget of 2017 was passed in February 2017, with Appropriation bill of N294, 457, 40, 477 billion, and was signed into law on Tuesday March 14, 2017 at a brief but impressive ceremony at the Exco chambers of the Government house, Asaba.
“But for the records lets make it clear that the Delta State House of Assembly, in February 2017 passed the 2017Appropriation bill of N294, 457, 40, 477 billion”.
“The break down shows recurrent to be N158, 030,660,828 Billion while capital is N136, 443,379,649 billion”.
He stated that the passed budget showed an increase of over N23 billion from the initial amount of N270, 910,982,233 presented by the Governor to the assembly in November 2016, and the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Erhitiake Ibori, who presented the report of the budget before it was passed said the committee received inputs from the from various sub-committees.
“The committee received and collated inputs, observations and recommendations from the various sub-committees and considered them one after the other, which were used in arriving at certain decisions as proposed estimates were reduced to certain areas to effect increase in other critical areas of specific needs”.
According to her, “the reasons for the increase in the budget size stems from envisaged increase in accruable income from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), owing to the global oil prices increase.
Hon. Erhitiake also attributed the increase to the Senate approval of USD 44.5 per barrel at N305 exchange rate which is at variance with the state USD 42.5 per barrel at N297 exchange rate in Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) document”.
