Bayelsa APC N90 bn debt for Bayelsa airport an economic waste

The Bayelsa chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday said that borrowing by the state government to fund the N90 bn International Cargo airport does not make economic sense.

 APC said borrowing at the interest rate in the money market was not sustainable and was a ploy to siphone public funds as the huge interests paid on the loan would stifle the state in the next eight years.

A statement by the State Publicity Secretary of APC,Mr Doifie Buokoribo. the N90 billion  Bayelsa airport project was built at  inflated costs, making it “clearly the most expensive airport project in Nigeria.

APC said the airport was economically unviable as it lacked vital intermodal network for easy accessibility.

 It noted that the project has taken a heavy toll on the welfare of civil servants and the infrastructural needs of the state.

 “We know it as a matter of fact that state governments that built airports in the past are unable to sustain them and want the Federal Government to take them over.

“No self-respecting, patriotic and honest Nigerian should be associated with this kind of  project.”
 
 

“Governor Henry Seriake Dickson collected a N40 billion credit facility from a commercial bank to commence work on the project.

 “As against the initial estimated cost of N40 billion, the Bayelsa State governor himself disclosed in Amassoma, on 26 May 2018 that N80 billion had already been spent by the State Government.

“Add to the new figure the loan interest of N32 billion, and the cost comes to N112 billion,” the statement read in part.

 However, Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson Commissioner for Information had during an inspection tour of the airport described the project as a one of the legacy projects of the administration.

He said that the airport which would unlock its economic potentials of the state by facilitating the export of agricultural produce from Bayelsa.  

Reacting to the allegations by APC Iworiso-Markson said the leader of the APC in Bayelsa, Ex-Gov Timipr Sylva, failed  to give Bayelsa a desperately needed International Airport between 2007 and 2011.

He said that the failed attempt to build an airport was in spite of the huge resources at the disposal of the former administration.

He stressed that Sylva used what should have been a laudable idea of an airport project to milk the state and siphoned billions of Naira into private pockets. 

The commissioner said that the 44 houses of Sylva for which he was probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission were screaming testimonial of the kleptocracy unleashed on Bayelsa by the APC and its thieving maniacs.

The Commissioner challenged the APC Spokesman, an aide of Sylva,  to tell Bayelsa people and Nigerians what his master did with N300 billion Agric Loan from the World Bank. 

He lamented that Sylvia’s APC fritted away N3 billion MDG Funds made available to his administration,  in addition foisting a bond obligation of N125 billion which the current administration has drastically reduced through prudent management of available resources in an era of crushing recession.

He added that Bayelsa received N708,896,925 billion allocation from the Federation Account apart from N22,02 billion IGR without any notable execution of projects in the state under Sylva.