By  Abdulwahab  Abdulah

ILORIN — The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara State has challenged Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to publicly disclose the debt profile of the state before taking another bond.

Chairman of the party in the state, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, who made this known in a statement yesterday, said the government should let the people know what they were owing as it had not accounted for the N17 billion and N10 billion bonds taken in 2009 and 2010 respectively, before taking another N23 billion bond.

He said: “They should let us know how much the state is owing before they can take another loan. Governor Ahmed should not take a loan of N23 billion without accounting for all he has taken since 2011.”

According to Oyedepo, none of what the state government claimed it used the N17 billion for had any direct effect on the well-being of the people of the state, adding  that the agricultural modernization the government said it had done was a ruse, since there was no modernization in the sector.

Oyedepo listed Secretariat phase II, Ilorin Water Reticulation, Aviation College, Cargo Terminal, Kwara State University, urban roads and settlement of outstanding debt as projects government claimed to have used the bond for.

“No agriculture has been modernized in Kwara. The PDP position is that the Songa farm experiment is a total failure,” he said. He added that the Songa farm was unable to pay the N650 million the state guaranteed for it, as N850 million was later deducted from the state’s statutory allocation to offset the Songa loan.

“A farm that cannot pay back its loan is nothing but a failure. I challenge the government to proof that it is the proceeds from the Songa farm that paid the loan,” Oyedepo said.