The Abia State governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Greg Ibe, has advised Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu against going for a fresh bank loan. This was following Ikpeazu’s pledge of N450 million intervention to re-accredit the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba which was de-accredited by the National Board for Technical Education over a non-payment of over 30 months’ salaries.
Prof. Ibe, who spoke on the alleged subtle plan by the State Government to borrow N450 million to bail out the Polytechnic, described the move as “digging a hole to fill a hole”.
Prof. Ibe declared as wrong for the State Government to resort to fresh loans when in fact, it could bail out the institution from its share of the federation allocation.
He accused the State Government of using the move as a cover to borrow more money for “unclear purposes after Abia stakeholders blocked an earlier move to borrow N60 billion”.
He queried, “Why borrow N450 million when Government can bail out the institution if it is sincere?
“Why plunge the state into further debt? Abia already has almost N100 billion debt hanging on its neck. How will the school operate if their debt servicing will take all the revenue collected from School fees?”
He noted, “The state keeps receiving allocations from the Federal Government every month and Abians want to know how the funds are spent”.
“If two aides of the Governor can be paid up to N25 million monthly for his media person who is totally bailout and almost a radio station owner, why can’t the State bailout Abia Poly?
“ABSUTH has lost accreditation to nonpayment students because the doctors have been on strike for nonpayment of their salaries for over two years. ABSU lecturer, Abia’s complained of salary arrears of over nine months. Where is Abia’s money going? ”