"Your Lies Won't Distract OKowa", Aniagwu Tells Ojougboh

The administration of Senator Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa as Executive Governor of Delta state has continued to come under attacks by some political elites who are bent on causing distractions to the government.



Only recently, the government was accused of operating without a budget; an issue that has necessitated the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor to respond to the allegations.

A statement issued and signed by Aniagwu Charles noted that; Okowa's administration is bent on transparency as his budget is readily available for all to see as lies from any quarter, especially from Mr. Cairo Ojougboh,
 will not distract the governor.

According to the CPS, "we are very much aware that, as the 2019 Polls draw near, the likes of Cairo Ojougboh who obviously are intimidated by the modest achievement of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa even in the midst of national recession would resort to outright blackmail".

"Governor Okowa has made it clear that he and his team shall remain focused and committed to the delivery of programmes of Government as spelt out in the SMART agenda", Aniagwu stated.

"But, for the records, let us make it clear that the Delta State House of Assembly, in February 2017, passed the 2017 Appropriation bill of N294, 457, 40, 477 billion".

"The break down shows recurrent to be N158, 030,660,828 Billion while capital is N136, 443,379,649 billion".

"The passed budget showed an increase of over N23 billion from the initial amount of N270, 910,982,233 presented by the Governor to the Assembly in November 2016", he stressed.

"The Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Erhitiake Ibori, who presented the report of the budget before it was passed had this to say "the committee received and collated inputs, observations and recommendations from the various sub-committees and considered them one after the other, which were used in arriving at certain decisions as proposed estimates were reduced to certain areas to effect increase in other critical areas of specific needs", the statement read.

According to the committee chairman, "the reasons for the increase in the budget size stems from envisaged increase in accruable income from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), owing to the global oil prices increase".

"Hon. Erhitiake also attributed the increase to the Senate approval of USD 44.5 per barrel at N305 exchange rate which is at variance with the state USD 42.5 per barrel at N297 exchange rate in Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) document", it further reads.

Aniagwu disclosed that, "the Governor signed the passed budget into law on Tuesday March 14, 2017 at a brief but impressive ceremony at the Exco chambers of the Government house, Asaba".

The Chief Press Secretary stressed that Governor Okowa has strictly implemented the budget in accordance with the estimates earmarked by the lawmakers.