New loans will not benefit Taraba, says petitioner

Mr Abdullahi Usman of Taraba, has petitioned the Acting Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Mr Folashodun Shonubi over alleged plans by Gov. Agbu Kefas to access a N206 billion loan facility.
Usman alleged that the governor planned on getting the loan from commercial banks in violation of laws guiding the process of loan application by the various tiers of government.
He urged the acting CBN governor to, as a matter urgency, instruct the affected commercial banks to suspend any consideration of granting the requested loan.
“If the CBN governor does not urgently wade into this matter, the state will be thrown into a perpetual state of abject poverty.
“The state will also be saddled with an excruciating debt burden and an inability to meet its financial obligations, which will impact negatively on the capacity of the state to remain a viable entity,’’ he said.
In addition to the suspension of the loan request, the petitioner also prayed the CBN governor to instruct the affected banks to present copies of relevant approvals from all agencies.
“They should also present limitation of use of commercial bank loans to fund capital expenditures and state budgets and finally, restriction of all loan facilities to Taraba until after the final determination of the ongoing gubernatorial litigation by the Supreme Court,’’ he said.
The petitioner, through his counsel said that the petition became necessary in order to draw the attention of the CBN governor to the planned contravention of the law.
He said the petition was also necessary to enable the CBN to take proactive steps and investigate the matter with the aim of discouraging the affected banks from getting involved in the process.
Copied in the petition were President Bola Tinubu, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Ministry of Finance.
Others are the Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), amongst others.(NAN)