By Jonathan Ugbal
The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Honorable John Lebo has said creditors have proceeded to courts to liquidate their investments in the controversial USD470 million Tinapa Premier Business and Leisure resort.
Mr. Lebo said the most tasking thing now is to pacify creditors not to liquidate their investments and called for a conversation on the Tinapa issues which he described as “humongous.”
This formed part of Mr. Lebo’s posturings on Facebook on a thread which CrossRiverWatch is yet to verify where it began but seemed to had continued on the wall of Mr. Prince will Odidi.
The resort which was commissioned by Nigeria’s former President, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 has failed to kick off fully 10 years after.
And, Mr. Lebo said that: “We need a conversation on the Tinapa future, the issues are humongous, most of the creditors have proceeded to court to liquidate their investment, while others want return on investment like the Rivers state government, etc.
“We can’t lay claim to the project without pacifying our creditors and co investors.
“The biggest challenge is how to get the creditors not to liquidate Tinapa for now until we find away around the return on investment.
“Secondly, how to get customs and other federal government agencies to create a friendly Tax regime for Tinapa? The issues are humongous.”
CrossRiverWatch had reported that Mr. Lebo said only the Federal Government has the capacity to fund the project.
In another report, Mr. Lebo also said that the Federal Government feels threatened by the concept and vision of the project which it perpetrated through agencies like the Revenue Service, Customs, Immigrations and several others to push businesses away.
Also, CrossRiverWatch had reported that the ECOWAS bank had recently visited the state and threatened to shut down the state due to the government’s failure to pay its debt which had put Governor Ben Ayade under pressure.