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Group faults Lagos PDP’s stance on N39.4billion World Bank loan

By Olubukola Ibidokun
31 July 2015   |   10:24 am
A GROUP yesterday berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chapter in Lagos over its stance on the N39.4billion World Bank loan purportedly obtained by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration. The Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), in a statement signed by its Executive Chairman, Nelson Ekujumi, said the opposition party in the state…

AmbodeA GROUP yesterday berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chapter in Lagos over its stance on the N39.4billion World Bank loan purportedly obtained by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration.

The Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), in a statement signed by its Executive Chairman, Nelson Ekujumi, said the opposition party in the state did not do enough to crosscheck its claims before going public.

The Lagos State chapter of PDP had criticised Ambode for hastily obtaining the loan from the World Bank, advising the governor to rescind the decision pending the book check on all previously obtained loans in the state, especially by his predecessor.

But facts emerged earlier in the week suggesting that the said loan was initiated and finalised by former governor, Babatunde Fashola and not the present administration as claimed by the PDP.

Thus, Ekujumi said, the PDP failed to do its homework well before coming out with its claims.

He went on: “In the light of the seriousness which issues of governance deserves, we expects the opposition party to have been properly schooled in the tenets of democracy based on due process and rule of law, bearing in mind the fact that, no government can obtain loan, talk less of a foreign loan, a world bank loan for that matter, without the approval of the legislature and other approving instruments at the federal level.

Since assuming office on May 29, 2015, one is unaware of the Akinwunmi Ambode government approaching the Lagos state house of assembly in this regard.

“Also, we would have expected that a serious and focused opposition party which is desirous of being alive to its democratic responsibility of keeping the government in power on its toes and portraying itself as a serious and virile opposition, to have done its home work properly before exposing itself to public ridicule by its claim which is damaging to our democracy.

Ekujumi also urged civil society organizations, labour bodies, the media, and other professional groups not to leave the task of being societal watchdogs to only political parties, which he said seem to be deficient in performing such role for now.

“Therefore, we at CPPM finds it imperative to admonish the opposition party at this point in time, to update their knowledge of issues and redirect their focus to the seriousness which governance deserves rather than the penchant for infantile tantrums, if our democracy is not to be impaired by the absence of constructive, focused, serious and virile opposition,” he added.

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