Rivers State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, Monday signed into law the state’s 2015 Appropriation Bill of N338 billion.
Signing the bill at Council Chambers in Government House, Port Harcourt, Amaechi said his administration would continue to be purposeful in implementing the budget.
He said his administration has been very frugal in spending state funds on meeting the needs of the people of the state.
“We will implement this budget until May 29. Nobody can say that we did not perform, from education to health, when people say our legacy is education, I laugh. The health centres that we have built all over the state are there as projects that will be remembered by all. The roads, if you remember when we took over, how narrow our roads were and how many roads we had in the state,” Amaechi said.
He noted that not only had he been frugal, he could account for how money was spent on various projects.
Amaechi thanked members of the state House of Assembly for being good partners towards the attainment of success by his administration.
He noted that his administration had faced challenges of political survival just as some states were facing now and thanked the state assembly for his survival.
His words: “Let me thank the House for the opportunity to sign one more budget before I depart from office. I’m excitedly looking forward to departing from this office because it is extremely tedious, but I must thank you that all efforts at breaking down the house and government were not successful.
“You can see that my brother and friend in Ebonyi is battling with same people, the same people who don’t obey laws are battling him in Ebonyi. They tried it in Adamawa in the same illegal manner, they removed the governor. Here, they were not successful.
“Let me on behalf of the Rivers people, my family, that is, my wife and children, thank all members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
He urged Rivers people to vote for the APC governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, in the forthcoming election and rescue the state from the hands of those he described as intending hijackers of the state treasury.
Before presenting the state appropriation bill for the governor’s assent, the Leader of the assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd, expressed the satisfaction of the assembly in the amount allocated to both capital and recurrent expenditure.
He said the government’s capital expenditure of N219 billion and recurrent expenditure of N119 billion was appealing to the state assembly, which earlier passed the budget after a close study.
Source: Thisday
