APC, PDP at loggerheads over N2.9bn car loan for Diri, deputy, others

Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

The All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are in verbal war over the N2.9billion car loan approved by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly for Governor Douye Diri, his deputy and other top government functionaries to procure operational vehicles.

 The House of Assembly at its plenary session presided over by the speaker, Rt Hon Abraham Inogbere approved the loan with a repayment period of 36 months.

The APC in a statement by its publicity secretary, Doifie Buokoribo, has, however, said the decision of the new government to take the loan is a confirmation that Diri’s administration is a continuity of the “regime of lawlessness and grand larceny.”

Buokoribo who expressed sadness that the House of Assembly had approved the loan said the loan move was   “scandalous, unsympathetic and ungodly.”

“Diri is taking a loan at a time when civil servants and pensioners in the state have not been paid. This is a continuation of the frivolities of the PDP government of Dickson – a major reason the people of the state roundly rejected them at the poll. Unfortunately, Bayelsa State is in for another long haul under an illegitimate regime that does not feel any sense of commitment to the welfare and sensibilities of the people. This cannot be the government that the people of Bayelsa State deserve. It cannot be the government the people voted for.”

However, the PDP in a response by its publicity secretary, Osom Mackbere, accused the APC of engaging in cheap blackmail.

Mackbere who accused the APC of obtaining N8bn ahead of the botched inauguration of David Lyon, expressed sadness that the party cannot muster the unnecessary integrity to play the opposition.

“On the allegation that Governor Diri collected a loan of N2.9 billion to purchase cars for top government functionaries, our response is that this is very cheap and unintelligible blackmail for government has the resources to acquire all such machinery as would facilitate in the delivery of its obligations and need not obtain loan facilities to do so.

“It is more laughable when you recall that the APC while waiting to be sworn-in in the state had already taken an N8bn loan, with which it purchased cars for persons not yet accorded official portfolios. Sadly, the APC and its structure always look puerile in their role as an opposition party and this calls for deep concern.”