The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been urged not to advance any fresh loan request to the Gombe State government, in order to avoid burying the state under a mountain of debt from frivolous loans being obtained by the State Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya.
The fresh call was made by a concerned group of stakeholders under the umbrella of the Gombe Good Leadership Association (GGLA). The same group, in a recent statement issued and signed by a Trustee of the Association, Mohammed Salisu Abdullahi, had raised the alarm over the increasing debt incurred by the Governor allegedly for development purpose.
However, the group expressed worry that the governor has ignored the calls to avoid accumulated debts with the danger of mortgaging the state’s future, and has gone ahead to seek additional loans running into billions from banks.
The group, in the new statement titled ‘The Gombe State Borrowing Governor Is At It Again’, lamented that, “the Governor has plunged Gombe State into a quagmire of crippling debts. Nothing is more reckless than borrowing m
“The public will recall that we have recently made a pressrelease concerning the spate of reckless borrowing by theMuhammadu Inuwa Yaya-led Ad
“In the letter, the Governor is requesting for the resolution of the Gombe State House of Assembly
According to the statement, “In the words of the Governor, Mr. President has approved “Six Hundred and Fift
“For emphasis, we reiterate that the Muhammadu Inuwa Yaya-led Administration of Gombe State has, between March 2020 and July 2021, procured the following debts: “N14.5 Billion from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc; N2.0 Billion to finance Healthcare Infrastructure Development in Gombe State; N12.0 Billion Credit Facility from Guaranty Trust Bank Plc; N10.8 Billion Finance Facility from United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and N5.0 Billion from Family Homes Funds for the provision of one thousand units of Affordable Housing Units”, it added.
According to the Association, “The above-listed debts do not
“If the Governor is allowed to obtain the N35 Billion debt that has been hurriedly approved by the Gombe State House of Assembly on 13 October 2021 and the proposed debt of N18,746,059,992.57, for which it is seeking approval in his latest letter to the Speaker of the Gombe State House of Assembly, the Governor would have succeeded in amassing a total debt of over N109 Billion (One Hundred and Nine Billion Naira) in a little over of two years of his administration.”
The association noted that, “There is no gainsaying that the debt service to the overall revenue of Gombe State is excessive and inimical to the economic and developmental
“The Federal Government has been indulging State Governors and pressuring the Central Bank to lend monies (it doesn’t have) to Governors under all sorts of dubious projects and schemes.We therefore call on t