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| Rt. Hon. Peter Odey, Leader of the 9th Cross River State House of Assembly |
20 July 2019
The Leader of the 9th Cross River State House of Assembly, CRSHA Right Honourable Peter Odey has charged the Government of Cross River State, CRSG to privatise some of its industries NEGROIDHAVEN can say authoritatively.
Odey who is concurrently representing Ogoja State Constituency at the 9th CRSHA said this early this week while fielding questions from members of the press in Calabar, the state capital city.
The ranking lawmaker maker who disclosed that he is comfortable with the degree of work on-going at some of the projects sites of the state government which he has visited said that ‘Like the rice mill in Ogoja, I have been there. I am satisfied with the level of work that is going on there. And I believe that in no distant time from now the rice mill in Ogoja will be in full operation.
‘If I can advise the governor, I would advise him to, as soon as possible, go into privatisation. If as it is right now, we privatise the Garment Factory to my friend here and he has put in some money, he would want to get his money back; then he propels garment factory to have their products in the market so that he would get his money back. If you put these industries in the hands of private individuals, business men who want to have a return on investment the state will benefit.
‘We all know the attitude of persons to government businesses. It is difficult for government to run businesses across the world, government create the environment for businesses to come and run in the state.’
N5 Billion Loan: Odey denies N50 million bribe
In the cause of his discussion with the press, Rt. Hon. Odey denied information circulating in the state alleging that the 25-members House of Assembly approved the request of the state governor to collect the loan of N5 billion for offsetting pensioners bills and other obligations of government on the promise of a N50 million bribe. Odey observed that that piece of information was mere speculation and should be forthwith dismissed. According to him, ‘Those are just speculations in the mindset of the said individual. Just dismiss that’.
For Odey, it is preposterous for the government to collect a loan of N5 billion to run the state only to starsh away N1, 250, 000, 000 for the legislature as a bribe.
However, Odey said he supported the request for the loan stressing that he submitted that the loan should be used to pay gratuities to the retirees considering their unique financial challenges.
RUGA? : House of Assembly rejects suspicious land grab
Odey said he personally does not support the RUGA programme in Cross River State. For him livestock farming is personal business. If the farmers want land, they should buy. Land shouldn’t be grabbed.
