You Can’t Criticise Wike, Tam-George Tells APC

The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has no moral justification to criticise Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration after it frittered away N3trillion in eight years, leaving the most abandoned projects in the history of the state.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, made this assertion in Port Harcourt at the weekend while answering questions at Rhythm 93.7 Current Affairs Radio Programme, View Point.
Tam-George maintained that while the previous administration of the APC borrowed N4billion Agricultural loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with no record of farmer-beneficiaries, Governor Wike’s N2billion loan from the same source has recorded 35,000 beneficiaries that are small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
He pointed out that loans borrowed by the Wike-led administration are tied to specific projects that are verifiable , adding that the government was not on a borrowing spree but has no choice because it met an empty treasury and arrears of unpaid salaries and pensions.
On the upgrading of the former College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt to a polytechnic, Tam- George said the move was part of government’s plan to improve access to quality education, and would not undermine the existence of the Kenule Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori.
According to him, at a town hall meeting Wike held with students of Kenule Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, recently, he promised to fund the institution to acquire technical equipment that would facilitate accreditation of courses.
Tam-George, who regretted the poor state of secondary schools in the state , said they would be upgraded through physical reconstruction and new curriculum through e-learning that would make them stand out as centres of academic excellence.
The commissioner stated that the state government has reconstructed the security architecture in the state and that those who refuse to renounce crime would have no hiding place because their hideouts are being combed on a daily basis.
“Already, some repentant criminals have started embracing the amnesty granted by the state government. They will be vetted and given the necessary rehabilitation that will make them live productive lives in future,” he declared.