Full gist about 16.2 billion loan Accusation in CRS

Cross River Has Not Accepted New Loans; I Urge Anyone with Proof to Come Forward and Present It to the Public Governor Otu

Since taking office on May 29, 2023, Senator Bassey Otu, the governor of Cross River State, has refrained from signing or gathering any new loans, either domestic or foreign.

The Governor’s reaction follows the worrisome figures presented on the spreadsheet of the Debt Management Of­fice (DMO) and posted on their website.

The same figure from the DMO is what a News­paper relied upon, ana­lyzed, and reported on their Sunday, March 31st, 2024 edition.

Governor Otu questioned how the Debt Management Office arrived at N220.2 billion as the domestic debt profile of Cross River State as of December 2023, up from N204.04 billion stated for the state as of June 30th, 2023, through his Chief Press Secretary, Nsa Gill.

Subtracting N204 billion from N220.2 billion from the figures represents the alleged N16.2 billion that was purportedly secured by Governor Bassey Otu\’s administration as a new domestic loan. \”This is untrue.\”

“There’s no record in the annals of the State govern­ment that suggests that fresh borrowing was undertaken; since the inception of the present administration to date; both domestic and for­eign debt.”

We challenge any person, including the DMO, who has evidence of any fresh loan tak­en under the administration of Governor Bassey Otu to make that Public,” the Gover­nor’s Spokesman said.

He noted that Fresh loans take processes including seek­ing legislative approvals. “The governor has not signed nor taken in a fresh loan on behalf of the state.”

He quoted the Governor also as saying, “Anyone in doubt of our position can make findings with the state legislature and even to the DMO. I have taken up the matter with the DMO and they have denied knowledge of any fresh loan under the current ad­ministration”.

The Chief Press Secretary said Governor Otu frowns at the misinformation portray­ing fresh borrowing and de­mands scrutiny of the figures posted by the DMO.

Adding, “It is also perti­nent that the media and the general public understand that the dynamics of DMO debt profile spreadsheets in­cludes the principal amount plus interest over time as well as other variables that may have been made available to the DMO; such as judgment debts, contract debts, gar­nishee orders, etc. in this case, Cross River State Gov­ernment vehemently rebukes any interest calculation or any surreptitious calculation that portrays the government to have increased her domes­tic debt profile by borrowing N16.2billion within June 2023 to December 2023. And the taking Foreign debt amount­ing to $57.9million within the same period.

We would like to reiter­ate that Senator Bassey Edet Otu’s “People First” admin­istration has promised the good people of Cross River State a very financially re­sponsible leadership and will not borrow except for very critical and fiscally respon­sible reasons in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.

Moreso, the Governor has directed the Commissioner for Finance in the state to take up the DMO on the figures and ensure clear explanations are given on the published figures which are untrue and unac­ceptable.

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