A political pressure group in Rivers State, Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), has said it would use every means to ensure that Governor Chibuike Amaechi did not succeed in accessing the $280 million loan from World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB).
The GDI, a political pressure group loyal to Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, said Amaechi had not given account to the people of the state on how he spent other loans he secured on behalf of the state.
The President General of GDI, Worldwide, Hon. Bright Amewhule, said in Port Harcourt yesterday at a press briefing that even though the state government had stopped the courts from functioning, the group would use other means to ensure that the loan was not released.
?Since the Rivers State Government has stopped the courts from functioning, we will therefore take any other available means to stop Amaechi from taking that loan,? Amewhule said.
According to the GDI president general, ?It is unfortunate that the present Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, has decided to exercise total impunity and disregard for the people of Rivers State and Nigeria at large.
?He has taken several loans that are already being questioned by the people of the state. As if that is not enough, he is seeking for another approval from his friends at the assembly to secure a loan from African Development Bank and World Bank to the tune of $280 million purportedly to provide water and sanitation for Rivers people.
?This $280 million loan that is now being approved by his friends again, if at all it exists, is to be shared amongst themselves who are top notches of APC in the state just as they allocated the Omagwa and Igwuruta-Ali land to themselves,? he alleged.
While calling on the people of the state to speak out against the loan, Amewhula said, ?The World bank and AfDB should not serve as instruments in the hands of the out-going Rivers State government to impoverish the lives of Rivers people for the next forty years. Rivers People must surely have good drinking water provided for them with Rivers money, not borrowed money.?
