APC SCORES ENUGU GOVT LOW, ASKS IT TO ACCOUNT FOR N470B REVENUE

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has scored the administration of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State low and below expectation, requesting that he should account for over N470billion he collected in the last one year.

The party said that with the so much money the administration collected in the past one year, he would have constructed at least 2,500 kilometres of roads having covenanted in his manifesto that he would construct 10,000 kilometres of road in Enugu State within four years.

It noted that 2,500KM represents 25% of the total road network he covenanted to build, adding that one year was a quarter of his tenure of four years.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Enugu State APC chairman, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, disclosing that the party had waited for whole year to appraise the administration of Governor Mbah because as citizens of the state and major stakeholders in the Enugu project, they wanted every government to succeed, adding that “the success of every government irrespective of the party that brought it into office will be enjoyed by us all and generations unborn”.

“Another reason why we have not commented on the activities of the Peter Mbah led government is because we know the government is battling with a widely perceived sense of illegitimacy, because he is widely believed not to have won the legitimate votes cast even though he was declared by INEC and confirmed by the judicial authorities.

“So we did not want to heat up the system knowing that he may find it difficult to rule this state if we unleash the weapon of opposition against his obviously debilitated government.

“The third reason was that under President Bola Tinubu, revenue allocation to all states and local government areas have increased exponentially to the extent that Enugu States monthly allocation have tripled making this present Mbah government the highest recipient of federal allocation since the creation of Enugu State.”

Giving a breakdown of allocations collected from the federal, loans, internal generated revenue and grants, the party stated: “It is an empirical fact that from May 29th 2023 to May 29th 2024, Peter Mbah’s government has received not less than N475,963,652,019 only.

“The breakdown is as follows; Federal allocation to the State is 147,778,456,610.09, Local Government Allocation: 64,185,195,409.01, Infrastructure allocation: 34,000,000,000,State IGR not less than: 60,000,000,000, Loans: 170,000,000,000. Making it a total of Four hundred and seventy five billion, Nine hundred and sixty three million, six hundred and fifty two thousand, and nineteen kobo.

“We felt that we should not heat up the system because with the humongous allocation which is almost three times what the previous governments received we felt that any serious government with such a bumper revenue will surely succeed.

“With this mind blowing funds we believed that Gov. Peter Mbah ought to have completed provision of water in Enugu city which he boasted he would complete in 180 days. With this unprecedented revenue we hoped that Peter Mbah would have at least built within this year his ill-conceived smart schools in 80 wards out of the 260 wards he covenanted to deliver in his manifesto within four years.

“It is also pertinent to note that the ill-conceived smart school projects is another avenue where the government of Peter Mbah is wasting billions of money to build one school per ward, whereas thousands of public schools are lying in ruins.”

The party regretted that in the past one year, Gov Mbah hasn’t constructed any single public building in the state, but has been busy destroying existing building and businesses constructed by individuals before he was born.

“With this once in a lifetime revenue we felt Gov. Peter Mbah would have equipped our health institutions, built rural roads, and equipped the security agencies with the needed logistical support to secure Enugu State. There is no landmark project one can point at despite borrowing N 170 billion and increased federal allocation and IGR of N 305 billion, all totalling N 475 billion.

“We should also remember that when Mbah wrote his manifesto he didn’t know that revenue would triple due to fuel subsidy removal so he has no reason not to meet up with his much touted developmental plans as other states like Imo, Ebonyi and Abia states are currently doing.”

The APC party chairman, said that they had always suspected that Mbah’s government was an unmitigated disaster but with recent developments it is now obvious to all the citizens of Enugu State.

“However, we decided to make a press statement after one year to inform the general public that Peter Mbah’s government has failed woefully and should account to the state for the over 470 billion naira that he has collected in a year. Where is this money, where are the projects this money was used for?

“The state owe it as a duty to know what has happened to this humongous revenue and what it has been used for within one year of Gov. Peter Mbah’s bull in the chinaware government where his achievements is engaging in sophistry, casuistry and paralogism with intent to bamboozle the ignorant folks of Enugu State.”The party also picked whole in his tax collection drive, adding “What is called “Tax” in Enugu state has become extortion of sorts under the present administration – ranging from land rent, property tax, cost of lifting a plot of land, sales tax, income tax, rates and levies. And the way government goes about collecting these taxes is brutal, including shutting down businesses that employ thousands of people,” the statement partly read.