The Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, has once again taken a swipe at the APC in Kogi State, describing it as being in the habit of ridiculing the party and the state at every turn.
Publicity Secretary of Kogi State PDP, Hon Bode Ogunmola, made the observation while reacting to the outing of the spokesman of the Prince Abubakar Audu/Hon James Faleke Campaign Organisation, Abdulmalik Suleiman on the popular ‘Sunrise Daily’ live television discussion programme on Channels TV.
Asked a question about the loan exposure of Kogi State, if this could in anyway impede the release of the bailout fund approved for the state by the Federal Government, Mallam Abdulmalik had quoted a ridiculous sum of N745bn!
Prodded further to confirm how he came about such a staggering sum, Abdulmalik volunteered that the figure was the outcome of research undertaken by the APC in Kogi State, to determine the level of the state’s indebtedness.
Reminded that even Lagos State, the largest economy in the country and the sixth largest economy in Africa, does not owe as much, the Kogi APC spokesman insisted he was speaking from facts available to his party.
According to Ogunmola: ‘The APC in Kogi State have fluffed the remnant of the opportunity they have to convince the people of Kogi State, that they have anything, just anything to offer our people. It is really sad, so so sad, that they do not know the state of the state they intend to govern.’
Citing a document from the Debt Management Office, DMO, Ogunmola said whereas Lagos State ranks at the top of the ladder of indebted states in the country, with a loan exposure of N500bn, Kogi State ranks at No 30, with liabilities totalling N17bn.
On the ‘States Sustain ability Index’ also released by the DMO, Ogunmola said Kogi State ranks at No 21, while its internally generated revenue, IGR, capacity places the state at No 22, with an haul of N6.5bn in 2014.
Ogunmola described Suleiman’s overall performance on the elite programme an ‘all encompassing tragicomedy,’ which has sounded the eventual death knell on the aspiration of the APC, to govern Kogi State.
Said Ogunmola: ‘It was a terribly sorry sight having Mallam Abdulmalik Suleiman put up such a show of shame on national television, after the brilliant outing of the Chief Communications Manager of our candidate, Gov Idris Ichalla Wada. Suleiman’s grasp of basic issues and facts was at best pedestrian, his verbal capacity pitiably suspect, and his comportment and carriage absolutely unedifying.’
Its most unfortunate that the spokesman of APC dubiously claimed not to know the function of the DMO, as it relates to the bail out funds.
Inspite of his efforts to hide behind a finger by his claims that he is not aware that the state applied for bailout, he forgot that on a discussion programme on the popular African Independent Television, AIT, he once lamented why such a huge sum of money should be given to workers in the state at this time and insisted that the funds be withheld until after the governorship election.
The Kogi PDP spokesman said the APC in the state has given the people a foretaste of what to expect in terms of the human resources it will deploy, if by any stretch of imagination, the people vote APC.
‘We watched the potential Commissioner for Information or Media Adviser in an Audu/Faleke administration, if it ever comes to be, and I believe the erudite people of Kogi State are roundly appalled that this is the very best the APC in Kogi has to offer!’
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