Delta denies receiving N70 billion bailout fund, dissolving DESOPADEC

DELTA State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has vehemently denied reports in one of the national dailies (not The Guardian) that the state government was given a princely sum of N70 billion as bailout from the Federal Government.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Delta State government, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who spoke with reporters, yesterday, in Asaba also denied another report in the same national daily, which alleged the dissolution of the Delta State Oil Producing Communities Development Commission (DESOPADEC).

The Delta State government spokesman, however, disclosed that the huge debt burden of the state was being restructured through the Debt Management Office for the loans to become Federal Government bonds, thereby giving the state a long repayment period without increasing the debt burden of the state.

“Let us make it clear that no N70 billion under any guise whether allocation, bailout or gratis was released to the state. The huge debt burden of the state was being restructured through the Debt Management Office for the loans to become Federal Government bonds thereby giving the state a long repayment period without increasing the debt burden of the state,” said Aniagwu.

Aniagwu explained that the Commission is intact and was never dissolved; adding that what was dissolved was the board whose tenure elapsed long before now.

He said that Section 7 of the DESOPADEC Act provides for a three -year tenure for members of the Commission and that the board was inaugurated in August 2011 and reconstituted in November 2012.

According to him, the life of the board was thus extended by three months to take care of the period between September and November 2012 when the members were out of office, insisting that the tenure elapsed in November 2014 following the expiration of the three-year tenure as spelt out in Section 7.