PDP tasks Lagos Assembly on N250bn loan request by Sanwo-Olu

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6 years ago

Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called on the State House of Assembly to probe deeply into the request for N250billion loans made by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu before granting it, saying the call became imperative as the request in its view was made under “very unclear needs.”

The party said this on Sunday in a statement made available to newsmen by its spokesperson, Mr Taofik Gani, urging the House to reject the loans request now before it.

PDP, while expressing the belief that any attempt by the 40-member parliament to approve the loan would be a declaration of Vote of no confidence in itself, PDP equally called on Lagosians to oppose the request as it was made under very unclear needs “and unless the governor allows a public defence of the loan request.”

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The party recalled that the governor had, in a letter requesting for the N250billion loan, stated that the state would have no new internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the remaining months in the year, declaring such assertion as “very uninformed.”

“What the LAHA should rather do is to summon the governor, his commissioner for finance to explain to Lagosians how the state would not have IGR for the remaining months in the year. Indeed the time is now overdue for the IGR collecting private company, Alpha Betta, to be reappraised and brought to account to Lagosians. Lagosians have long been shortchanged,” the party said.

Reacting, the Assistant Publicity Secretary of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Abiodun Salami, dismissed the concern raised by PDP, saying it would be irresponsible of anybody to take such position, giving the fact that Lagos State was currently facing infrastructural deficit, such as state of roads, which called for urgent attention.

According to Salami, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune on the telephone, the request for the loans is for the betterment of people of Lagos, saying Governor Sanwo-Olu made it very explicit on what it was meant for.

“The loan is meant to address the infrastructural deficit in the state and for the betterment of Lagosians and not to be swindled unlike what happened under PDP administration,” he said.