By Festus Ahon

ASABA—DELTA State Government’s financial burden has been reduced, following the bailout it got from the Federal Government last week.
A source, told Vanguard that the state government received about N70 billion from the bailout released to states to pay workers salaries.

The source, who pleaded anonymity, said the state government had released part of the fund to 21 out of the 25 local government areas in the state, whose workers went on strike due to the inability of the affected councils to pay their workers.

Saying that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had been worried with the closure of some of the councils due to the strike action embarked upon by the workers in protest over the non payment of their salaries, he said that the 21 councils had last week Wednesday suspended their strike upon receipt of the fund.

The state House of Assembly had last week approved the request for restructuring of the state government outstanding commercial bank loans of N69.8 billion into Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, bonds.

Governor Okowa had in a letter to the state Legislature, read by the Speaker, Mr Monday Igbuya at an emergency sitting of the House, requested the restructuring of the commercial banks loan facilities into FGN bond as approved by the Federal Government.

Okowa in the letter by his Deputy, Mr Kingsley Otuaro, informed the House that “Following the inability of many states in the country to meet their salaries obligations due to the continuous decline in revenue from Federal Allocation which is further worsened by the huge debt service burden occasioned by commercial bank loans, an approval was given by the Federal Government for the restructuring of outstanding states’ commercial bank loans into FGN bonds.”

He noted that “Arising from the above, the Debt Management Office, DMO, on June 30, 2015 requested the state government to apply to the Federal Ministry of Finance for a restructuring of its outstanding commercial bank loans into FGN bonds,” adding that the request was approved by the State Executive Council on July 13, 2015.