Governor Akpabio of Akwa Ibom seeks lawmakers’ approval for N80bn loan.
Mr. Akpabio wants to use the loan to offset another loan.
The controversialAkwa Ibom StateGovernor,Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday sought the House of Assembly’s approval for the State Government to obtain a loan of N80 billion from the bank.
This is contained in a letter sent by the governor and read by the Clerk of the Assembly, Mandu Umoren, at the floor of the house.
M. Akpabio said that the loan would be used to offset the loan collected fromUnited Bank for Africa Plc. (UBA) in 2012.
“I, hereby, request for your speedy consideration and approval of the house of my request to borrow $500 million dollars (about N80 billion) from the Standard Chartered Bank International.
“The proceeds of this loan facility will be utilised to offset all outstanding loan commitment of the State Government to UBA Plc.
“This will drastically reduce the applicable interest that government will have paid on the facility from UBA Plc which runs into billions of naira,” he said.
The governor further said that the loan from UBA attracted interest rate of 18.5 per cent, while standard chartered bank international loan rate is 8.19 per cent.
It would be recalled that the house on May 2012 approved the borrowing of N50 billion to execute ongoing infrastructure development in the state.
The Speaker, Samuel Ikon, directed that the letter be referred to the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance, for in depth work and report back to the house as soon as possible.
Mr. Akpabio has been in the news for his seemingly extravagant spending of public funds for private and political purposes. The governor is notorious for dashing millions of naira as gifts to individuals despite the level of poverty and unemployment in the state. His party, thePeoples Democratic Party, has however, defended him saying he is not a spendthrift but a benevolent and kind hearted governor.

This uncommon transformation is seriously going on in his family...turning the Akpabio's family into a multi-billion dollar empire...SMH