The Taraba State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, on Saturday called on Governor Agbu Kefas to account for the alleged missing $268 million loan obtained from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) in June 2026.
Bwacha made the call while declaring open the PDP’s 2027 governorship campaign in Zing Local Government Area.
He said public borrowing must be anchored on transparency, accountability, value for money and measurable public benefit.
According to him, the EBID loan appears to have vanished without trace or explanation.
“The $268 million ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development loan obtained by Governor Agbu Kefas is missing in the air. We demand to know the whereabouts of the money and what it has been spent on,” Bwacha said.
He recalled that in June 2026, the Taraba State Government and EBID signed three financing agreements worth approximately $268 million for an integrated industrial park, 10,000 hectares of irrigated rice production and modern processing, and a 50MW solar photovoltaic plant in Jalingo.
“The questions are straightforward: What has been drawn? What has been spent? What value has been created? What jobs have been generated? What assets will remain for future generations? And what repayment obligations will ultimately fall on the people of Taraba?
“When public resources are committed through borrowing, citizens are entitled to ask what lasting value is being created,” he insisted.
Bwacha said the state is facing serious concerns over infrastructure, public expenditure, borrowing, social services and the relationship between government and communities, stressing that government is not merely about the possession of power but the responsibility that comes with it.
“Government is about remembering the farmer in the village, the civil servant waiting for a better life, the pensioner who has given productive years to the state, the young graduate searching for opportunity, the mother who needs a functioning health facility and the child whose future depends on the quality of education available to him,” he said.
He promised that if elected, his administration would build a state where government is connected to communities, public institutions work, opportunities are created and state resources are converted into tangible improvements in people’s lives.
He listed priority areas to include agriculture, infrastructure, security, education, healthcare, employment and human capital development.
“We will strengthen rural security, improve roads serving agricultural communities and the movement of perishable goods from places such as Lau, Karim-Lamido and Sardauna, and invest in storage, processing, packaging, transportation and export.
“We will develop agro-processing zones and value chains that will enable local farmers to participate more fully in the modern agricultural economy.
“We will prioritise youth and women development, boost the health and education sectors and transform infrastructure and the state economy for the citizens,” he stated.
Bwacha urged supporters to see politics as a contest of ideas and not war, calling for decorum in campaigns and public engagements.
“We must reject violence, intimidation, disorder and personal attacks, even when disagreements become intense,” he said.
Earlier, the PDP National Chairman, Hon. Abdulrahman Mohammed, urged the people of Taraba to support Bwacha’s ambition to build a Taraba of the people’s dream.
