FG Refunds to Akwa Ibom on Projects

Reading page eighteen of the New Nigerian newspaper of Wednesday January 13, 2010, I was happy to note that our governor, Chief (Dr.) Godswill Akpabio, confirmed through an interview organized by the Akwa Ibom Broadcasing Service on Monday January 11, 2010 that the federal government has at least refunded 2billion Naira on account of road constructions carried out on its behalf by the State government.

Judging from the news item, Governor Akpabio seems to have reversed self when he said that the State government had requested 40billion Naira as due refund; he had earlier claimed umpteenth time, in the media, that the figure was 81billion Naira. It is necessary that the governor informs the masses what the correct figure is, and tells when funds are received just as he has in this case of 2billion and the Federal Government should please do the refund unless it is demonstrating that what our Governor did was out of specifications and regulations.

Furthermore in the same New Nigerian, the governor was quoted as saying that “the State government would seek the assistance of the National Assembly in recovering its expenditure on federal roads”. Why he should seek the assistance of the National Assembly could be interpreted or misinterpreted to mean that the State government did not follow due processes because if it did according to the specifications of the federal government, one does not see why he is finding it difficult to get our money back to the extent of seeking assistance from elsewhere. And on the suspended of Arik Airline operation to the Akwa Ibom international airport, he described it as “sabotage” and added that “When they say the governor is doing well, some people are not happy. It is part of human nature”. One wonders who the saboteur could be in what government had absolute control and freely negotiated with an airline that had one of our own (Senator Aniete Okon) as the Deputy Executive Chairman.

Akpabio Ini, Plot 12 Bello Close, Garki, ABUJA [email protected]