The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Rivers State government have disagreed over the financial status of the state as the former alleged that the state is broke and cannot meet its obligations.
The Rivers State chapter of PDP argued that despite the contrary view of the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, evidence had shown that the state was bankrupt.
A statement signed by Jerry Needam, the media aide to Rivers PDP chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah, described the state government’s denial as laughable.
It urged Semenitari to explain why the state government owed officers and men of the State Transport Management Agency for about six months.
“The newly recruited 13,000 teachers are also owed six months’ salaries, roads and other infrastructural projects abandoned, and the delay in the release of the N300 million Christmas bonus meant for the civil servants in the state.
“The PDP also demands explanation from the Information Commissioner to justify the reason for the denial of funds for full implementation of the 2013 Budget by the various ministries if the state was not broke”, the statement read.
Debunking the claim by the PDP as absurd, Rivers State Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Chamberlain Peterside explained that it was wrong for the PDP to stay on the sideline and declare that the state was broke without facts.
He said, “The state is not broke. It is absurd for the PDP to say that the state is broke. The PDP does not run the government and nobody tells the government when payment of contractors and workers are due because the state government has always lived up to its expectations.
“How do you determine that a government is broke? Is it by sitting on the sideline? Does the processing of teachers’ salaries through biometric procedure mean that the state is broke?” Peterside asked.
