We wish to alert the general public of the following dangers facing the fiscal administration of Rivers State today
1. A certain group called BudgIT now allotted an office on Evo road in GRA Port Harcourt has been allegedly contracted by the Rivers state government to hatchet new budgets to cover for the life span of the Wike led administration so far since this government operates without any known budget from 2015 till date as Governor Nyesom Wike PLANS TO HIDE THE 2018 budget again in concert with the House of Assembly which is reportedly scheduled to be presented on Thursday January 11, 2018.
2. That the Governor Wike administration has always and only presented budget speeches to the state House of Assembly and NO budget proposal at all, thus, if there is a budget at all, why is the Governor hiding the budgets if not to serve a fraudulent intent, giving that NOBODY OR ORGANIZATION ON RECORD HAS COPIES OF THE RIVERS STATE BUDGETS since May 29, 2015, 2016 and 2017 ANYWHERE EXCEPT ONLY THE GOVERNOR HIMSELF RAPING THE STATE TO DEATH UNDER THE GUISE OF "MR PROJECT".
3. Our point is that the secrecy of the Rivers state government budgets has branded the "Mr Project" signature as a fraud and this raises worries as to why even though perpetually denied, we have to at all apply to see or access state budgets: a public document despite the governor's false claim of transparency giving that he doesn't believe in open budgeting. That Rivers people are economically endangered by this wickedness because it is chasing away foreign investors everyday as the latest report from National Bureau of Statistics shows that Rivers state has the highest rate of unemployment in Nigeria despite being one of the highest revenue earners in the country among states.
4. Thus, the Rivers state government is challenged to mention only One to five known private organizations or individuals who have applied and have the state budgets so we can photocopy from them even though BudgIT group which the Wike government works with has in swift response to our query indicting them, posted on their official Twitter handle that Rivers 2017 budget is not published anywhere.
5. Thus the general public should join in this campaign demanding that the Governor of Rivers state should make the state Budgets 2015 to 2017 public including 2018 when passed into Law. This will enable the public to monitor what he is doing with our money so we will know whether or not Governor Nyesom Wike on trust is a thief because public funds cannot be spent without transparency as it the case under his government awarding contracts anyhow he likes without the due process of the Law.
Sign:
Livingstone Wechie
Executive Director
Executive Director
