SENATOR ANIETIE OKON BLASTS OBONG ATTAH

"Where was Attah when the fight for Derivation ensued? Where was Attah when the war for the abolition of the Dichotomy in Revenue Attribution erupted? These defining benchmarks were chalked up at the National Conference of 1994.

 Attah, even though a member of the Conference, did not feature in those momentous events for reasons not far removed from his personal political ambitions.

 The din and noise that featured in his tenure as governor over the subject of "resource control" was an exercise in brigandy and more so after the fact. The National Conference having taken full cognisance of the anchorage of Fiscal Federalism by provisioning

 "Derivation as an irreversible component of Revenue Administration of this Country. Questions must be asked about the real achievements of the ill defined and cacophonous "Resource Control" campaign. 

"The truth is that the campaign endangered our inheritance to the extent of inciting a ruinous response from President Obasanjo who with his Attorney General, the late Bola Ige instituted actions and processes in court which for a long while strangulated this State. Obong Attah can save us the angst of his self serving pontificating because they painfully remind us of missed opportunities with him as Governor.

 Needless to remind him of the serial deprivation of our State by his uncanny penchant for mis-steps in the management of our patrimony.

 Whatever for example happened to the State's Investment in Econet Communications Ltd? Or again for the record what is the truth about the FG's investment in Ibom Power? How did we end up without a viable financial institution to drive economic details in this State? What is the true saga of the Cooperative Development Bank that was largely owned by people and institutions of our State? What has happened to over four hundred staff of the bank from this State who lost their jobs following the disaster of the contrived and intriguing hand over of our bank to a distantly inferior entity. Please do not stir nauseating recalls."

Senator Anietie Okon