Disquiet as Adamawa Assembly approves N100bn bond for Fintiri

Adamawa Assembly has approved a request to access a bond amounting to N100 billion for Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.

The Assembly gave the approval on Monday amidst protest by a member the bond was too large.

The member, who is of All Progressives Congress (APC), led a protest against the bond request right in the floor of the House.

The sitting of Monday was preceded by obvious attempt by the Assembly to keep information about the loan request and approval from members of the public.

Even the regular Press Crew in the Assembly, consisting mostly of representatives of local media houses, was unaware of it until just before the sitting, which they and other reporters were not allowed to witness.

Dependable sources disclosed after the sitting however the Assembly approved the bond request.

The dissenting Assembly member, Hon Abdullahi Yapak (APC, Verre Constituency), said the bond sum was too high and this was because the Assembly, in approving it, disregarded an important standing rule.

Yapak said he had to walk out of the plenary when the Acting Speaker, Pwamakeno Mackendo, who led the session, insisted on the loan request being granted despite the disapproving standing rule.

Yapak said: “I received a text message yesterday that we should convene at the assembly complex. I was not told what the sitting was for.

“When we came in, the Deputy Speaker who led the plenary in acting capacity brought three letters and I rejected all the three letters. But what baffles me much is the N100bn loan which the governor is seeking.

“I objected to that because there are procedures, there are financial regulations which we have to abide by. There is a provision in the 2021 budget, a column for domestic borrowing and in that column, we approved only N20bn. Because of that I staunchly stood my ground that we should not approve a loan above N20bn.

“What took place in the House today was wrong because the poor man in the village will not understand what we are doing here. I advised that they should split it to N25bn this year, next year and the remaining two years, they still objected.”

It was unclear at first what the State Government wanted the N100 billion bond for but when newsmen raised the question, a statement emanated from the government tying the bond to agricultural development initiatives.

The statement said the Adamawa State Executive Council had on last Wednesday approved N100 billion bond for the Adamawa Agric Business Support for the period of four years.

Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Dr Umar Pella, was quoted in the statement as telling newsmen after Wednesday’s SEC meeting that the Council also approved the establishment of Adamawa State Agric Business Support Programme, five agencies and the repositioning of the Agricultural Development Programme. (The Nation)