22nd October, 2020
Delta Government on Thursday postponed its proposed 2021 budget presentation to the House of Assembly due to the ongoing #EndSARS protests by youths.
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa had initially slated the presentation for Wednesday but moved it to Thursday due to the protests.
The youths on Wednesday held the Delta State House of Assembly hostage, barricaded the entrance and made a bonfire at the gate.
The activities of the youth caused Asaba residents and environs to keep their children and wards at home to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s incident which raised panic and near casualty as parents ran helter-skelter to take their children home from school.
The scene not looking different, it was obvious that the state governor had to postpone the budget presentation billed for Thursday until next week.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, had on Tuesday, Oct. 13, while addressing newsmen in Asaba, said that the state’s Executive Council had approved the sum of N378 billion as the budget proposal for 2021.
According to Aniagwu, the budget proposal of N378 billion will be made up of N174 billion as recurrent expenditure and N203 billion as capital expenditure.
“The first very important decision that was reached at the Executive Council meeting is the approval of the draft estimate of 2021 budget of the state.
“A budget of N372 billion was presented by the Economic Planning Ministry for consideration by the council.
“After some adjustments here and there and the need for us to also tackle certain critical infrastructure in the state, the budget was increased to N378 billion.
“So, that is what is going to be presented to the House of Assembly.
“Good enough, in that budget, we have about N174 billion and some fractions that will be deployed to recurrent expenditure and the remaining N203 billion and some fractions to be deployed to address critical infrastructure.
“This infrastructure is aimed at strengthening the `Stronger Delta Agenda’ of the administration,’’ Aniagwu said.