The Bayelsa Government says the discounted N27 billion refunds for Federal projects it received, instead of N38 billion, had been ploughed into infrastructure projects across the state.
Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa
said this on Saturday in a broadcast to commemorate the 2021 Democracy day in
Yenago.
In
the broadcast, Diri explained that the N38 billion due to the state were
‘promissory notes’ rather than cash, which the government redeemed based on
experts’ advice.
The explanation came amidst
concerns that the difference between N38 billion and N27 billion, amounting to
about N11 billion, shortchanged the state in the ‘discount deal’.
Promissory
notes and bonds are debt instruments in which one party promises in writing, to
pay a determinate sum of money to the other, either at a fixed or determinable
future, under specific terms and redeemable before maturity at a discount.
It
will be recalled that on Nov. 24, 2020, the Senate approved promissory notes
and bonds worth N148.1 billion as refunds to Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Osun
and Ondo State, for executing Federal projects.
A breakdown of the refunds showed that
Bayelsa got N38.4 billion, Cross River N18.4 billion, Ondo State N7.8 billion,
Osun N4.5 billion and Rivers N78.9 billion.
Diri
further clarified that the state government entered into the discount deal
based on due diligence, after consulting economic experts who advised that for
the state to get the full value of the debt, it had to wait for the four year
maturity period of the instrument or discount it at market rates.
“The
governors of the benefiting states met and it was obvious that it made sense to
accept the discount option because, some second term governors cannot have access
to the money before leaving office.
“Also,
given the unpredictable inflation and foreign exchange rates, it made sense to
go for the discount option and I want to assure the people of Bayelsa that the
decision was taken in the interest of the public.
“We
got that money sometime in December 2020 and deployed it to work on the
Yenagoa-Oporoma road which will connect the headquarters of Southern Ijaw Local
Government Area by road, work is advancing at an impressive pace.
“The
Glory Land Drive road, the AIT-Igbogene, Sagbama-Ekeremor road and so many
projects that the previous administration could not complete are receiving
attention and the people are free to go and see what we are doing with the
refunds,”Diri said.
On
the commencement of scheduled commercial flights to the recently licenced
Bayelsa Airport, the governor said that plans had been concluded with United
Nigeria Airlines, to begin flight operations to and from Bayelsa as from July.
He
said that the state also held talks with Ibom Air and the airline requested for
guarantees that the state government would indemnify it for empty seats, until
passenger traffic grew, but that the aircraft had a capacity for 90 passengers.
Diri
said that as a prudent administration, considering the cost of empty seats in a
90-passenger capacity aircraft, the government opted for United Nigeria Airline
with smaller planes of 50 passenger-capacity.
“Our
earlier plan was to start with Ibom Air and we opened discussions with my
brother, the Governor of Akwa Ibom, Mr Udom Emmanuel, during our recent retreat
in Uyo and he agreed. We immediately set up a committee .
“The
committee found that we need to defray the cost of unoccupied seats as a new
airport and we found the cost too high for the capacity of aircraft operated by
Ibom Air, so we had to look for airlines that operate smaller capacity aircraft.
“I
can confidently say the scheduled flights will start at our airport in July,
arrangements have been concluded following the presentation of certification
documents for daytime flight operations by the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority.
“The
reason for the clause for daylight is because the runway lights for night
operations are yet to be installed as at the time they inspected, but as soon
as the lights are installed the airport can handle night operations as well,”
Diri said.
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