$22.7bn loan: Igbo group petitions China Exim Bank, demands suspension, cancellation of loan
• Threatens legal action against FG, bank
Ahead of arrangements by the Federal Government to revisit the template for the spending of the $22.7 billion loan recently approved by the Senate, a group Igbo Board of Deputies, has petitioned China Exim Bank advising it to suspend or cancel the loan deal with the Nigerian government.
The senate a fortnight ago approved the $22.7 billion loan request for President Muhammadu Buhari , despite protests, especially from the South East that it was completely excluded from the infrastructural development captured in the loan.
In a letter of protest to China Exim Bank signed by Mr. Austin Okeke, on behalf of the Igbo Board of Deputies and delivered at the banks office in Johannesburg on March 11, the group warned that it would join the bank in the suit against the Nigerian government if it failed to heed its demand.
The group insisted that the bank should suspend the disbursement of the loan or cancel it until the Federal Government revised or amended the way it intends to allocate the loans to include the South East.
“On March 11, 2020, we delivered a letter of demand to China Exim Bank in Johannesburg calling upon it to give an undertaking in the following manner: suspend the loan disbursement, alternatively, cancel the approval of the loan to the Nigerian government until such time as it has revised and/or amended the manner it intends to allocate the loans so as to include projects in the South East, which projects shall directly benefit the Igbo; and as a condition, tie the loan repayment to the regions of Nigeria that inherit the projects, as Nigeria flounders and threatens to break up.
“In going forward, the Chinese must ensure that all projects are valued and open-bid for, following international best practices to ensure standard quality and fair cost.
“The present Nigerian government is prone to project cost inflation, and future generations are not obligated to pay for fraudulently inflated costs.
Failing which we shall join China Exim Bank as a defendant party to the law suit against the Federal Government. We say so because we do not guarantee the repayment of these loans by the other federating units of Nigeria in so far as the deliberate discrimination against the Igbo in Nigeria persists,”Okeke said.
The group decried that states in Igboland were not accommodated as beneficiaries of the loan noting that “Igbo are not beneficiaries of the loans, and shall not participate in servicing and repayment of same as a matter of principle, fact and law.
“The Igbo shall not be held liable for these loans, not now and in the future. We will not mortgage the rights and interests of our future generations for something they neither partook in nor benefited.”
• Threatens legal action against FG, bank
Ahead of arrangements by the Federal Government to revisit the template for the spending of the $22.7 billion loan recently approved by the Senate, a group Igbo Board of Deputies, has petitioned China Exim Bank advising it to suspend or cancel the loan deal with the Nigerian government.
The senate a fortnight ago approved the $22.7 billion loan request for President Muhammadu Buhari , despite protests, especially from the South East that it was completely excluded from the infrastructural development captured in the loan.
In a letter of protest to China Exim Bank signed by Mr. Austin Okeke, on behalf of the Igbo Board of Deputies and delivered at the banks office in Johannesburg on March 11, the group warned that it would join the bank in the suit against the Nigerian government if it failed to heed its demand.
The group insisted that the bank should suspend the disbursement of the loan or cancel it until the Federal Government revised or amended the way it intends to allocate the loans to include the South East.
“On March 11, 2020, we delivered a letter of demand to China Exim Bank in Johannesburg calling upon it to give an undertaking in the following manner: suspend the loan disbursement, alternatively, cancel the approval of the loan to the Nigerian government until such time as it has revised and/or amended the manner it intends to allocate the loans so as to include projects in the South East, which projects shall directly benefit the Igbo; and as a condition, tie the loan repayment to the regions of Nigeria that inherit the projects, as Nigeria flounders and threatens to break up.
“In going forward, the Chinese must ensure that all projects are valued and open-bid for, following international best practices to ensure standard quality and fair cost.
“The present Nigerian government is prone to project cost inflation, and future generations are not obligated to pay for fraudulently inflated costs.
Failing which we shall join China Exim Bank as a defendant party to the law suit against the Federal Government. We say so because we do not guarantee the repayment of these loans by the other federating units of Nigeria in so far as the deliberate discrimination against the Igbo in Nigeria persists,”Okeke said.
The group decried that states in Igboland were not accommodated as beneficiaries of the loan noting that “Igbo are not beneficiaries of the loans, and shall not participate in servicing and repayment of same as a matter of principle, fact and law.
“The Igbo shall not be held liable for these loans, not now and in the future. We will not mortgage the rights and interests of our future generations for something they neither partook in nor benefited.”
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