By Festus Ahon
ASABA—DELTA State Government, yesterday, has urged opposition political parties in the state not to heat up the polity, insisting that the N10 billion received recently from the Federal Government as the state’s share of the Paris Club refund was used judiciously.
Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who stated this in Asaba, said: “We have observed the continued misinformation by some leaders of the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, in the state, in which they painted pictures that are at variance with the realities on ground about our projects and programmes both completed and ongoing.
Gov. Okowa
“Those who have elected to politicise everything tend to have found a very fertile ground in our deployment of the second tranche of the Paris Fund Club refund, even after we offered an explanation to that effect.
N10b breakdown
“At the risk of repeating our initial explanation, these are the breakdown: N2.1 billion was allocated to Local Government Councils for salary arrears and N7.9 billion was due to Delta State Government.
“The government spent N1.3 billion, being 7.5 percent of the money, on contributory pension arrears; N1.7 billion on deductions due to co-operatives societies; N315 million, state contributions to pension for May 2016; N174 million, restoration of BVN issues related salaries;
“N475 million, augmentation for July 2017 salary; N300 million, part payment for outstanding arrears of past services of state Contributory Pension Scheme; N318 million, support to LGAs to pay June 2017 salaries; N3.5 billion, capital/recurrent expenditure approvals and it totals, N7.9 billion.”
He said the state government will remain committed to bringing prosperity to all Deltans, urging opposition political parties to “avoid engaging in deceptive acts that could heat up the polity ahead of the 2019 general election, but to rather engage in actions that will unite Deltans the more and make the state more peaceful.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we expect criticism from anybody because it is an essential ingredient of democracy; but we believe that such criticisms should find a reasonable space on the track of objectivity and patriotism.”
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