The Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation has tasked former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo to ascertain the actual debt profile of Anambra state before commenting on the issue.
Mr Afam Ogene, Director, Media and Publicity of the organisation made the demand on behalf of his principal in a statement on Friday in Awka.
Ogene noted that it was regretful that Soludo was feigning ignorance of the huge indebtedness of the state in a Channel television interview.
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“As an irreducible minimum, the Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation, requests Soludo to undertake the urgent task of finding out the exact and total debt liability of Anambra state,” he stated.
He said that by so doing, Soludo as APGA candidate would have rendered an invaluable service to the people he wanted to govern by saying the truth.
Soludo had while speaking on the Channels TV programme on Thursday feigned ignorant of Anambra state’s debt profile.
But data released by the DMO on Dec. 31, 2020 indicated that the state domestic debt stood at N59,013 billion as at Sept. 30, 2020, while the state’s external debt profile was 115,886 million dollars as at June 2020.
Some APGA chieftains had severally in the course of the ongoing governorship campaign mocked the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari of hanging huge debt burden on Nigeria.
But Soludo said during the interview that he would find out when he become the state governor.
“We are however, happy that APGA’s antics are already known to the people who are waiting to finally send them packing on Nov. 6,” Ogene stated.
“Nigerians especially Anambra people should beware of the so-called intellectuals without character and wisdom because this combination is fatal,” he said.
Ogene said that Soludo decided to cover up Gov. Willie Obiano’s obsessive borrowing binge, in exchange for his role in seeking to puppeteer him into political office.
Reacting, Mr C-Don Adinuba, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Enlightenment dismissed the allegation, describing it as a mere joke.
Adinuba, also the Director, Media, Soludo Governorship Campaign Organisation, said though Obiano’s administration cannot claim it did not incur debt, but that large debt owed could be tagged ‘historical debt’ .
He said that no government could operate without debt, saying that what the present administration incurred was minimal.(NAN)