FACT CHECK: Did Taraba Govt. take different loans of N81bn and N82bn in Q1 2020and Q4 2019?

Claim: The Taraba State Joint Public Service Negotiating Council in its Bulletin No3 dated 7th April 2021 during its recently suspended strike claimed that the Taraba State Government obtain two different  loans of  82,321,127,723.11 in the last quarter of 2019 and another Loan of 81,269,122,175.60 in the last quarter of 2020.

Verdict: According to the Debt Management Office DMO in its report  of States Debt Stock for 2020,  the Taraba State Government did not obtain any internal loan between the last quarter of 2019 (Q4 2019) and First quarter of 2020, (Q1 2020).

Rather the Debt stock of the state witnesses a slight reduction of 0.1 percent of the total internal loan between the period under review.  Meaning the State Government paid off over one Billion from its debts at that period.    

The claim by the Labour Union  which was widely shared on social media also contradict the current total internal Debt Profile of the State as released in March 2021  by  the DMO which puts Taraba Internal Debt Stock at  N106,045,259,062.53 as at December 2020. This figure obviously is lower than the claim of the Labour Union if the imaginary loans are summed together.

It should be noted that the current Debt Stock of Taraba State includes accumulating interests of servicing loans owed by both the previous administrations in the state and   current administration of Governor Ishaku.  It is important to stress that the administration of Governor Dairus Ishaku has significantly paid off foreign loans obtained by previous administration, making Taraba State the least indebted state externally.  

The fact remains that the Labour Union felt the state debt stock for Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 were different loans, the impression created in their document that the State Government took two different loans between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 is false and a misrepresentation of facts.