Kwara ACN on Thursday said the decision of the Fitch Ratings to withdraw 'stable outlook' ratings for the state is a confirmation of the party's worry that the state is in dire financial situation.

The Fitch Ratings, an international financial forecast body, had on Wednesday withdrawn Kwara's Long-Term foreign and local currency ratings of 'B+' and Long-Term National Rating of 'AA-(nga)'with Stable Outlooks. The agency also simultaneously dropped the Long-term ratings of 'B+' and 'AA-(nga)' on the state's N17bn bond maturing in 2014.

The withdrawal, according to a foreign news agency Reuters, follows Kwara State Government's decision to stop participating in the rating process. Fitch will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage of Kwara State, Reuters reported.

ACN said in a statement by its chairman, Kayode Olawepo, that the government's decision to pull out of the process, just a year before the 2014 deadline to repay the N17b bond, was a smart move to evade unfavourable rating commensurate with Kwara's messy financial situation.

Olawepo said the fact that Fitch dropped its 'acceptable risk level' ratings for Kwara months after the CBN blacklisted the state over its inability to pay back its debt is a cause for worry.

The statement added: "The Fitch Ratings' decision, as published by a foreign news agency, Reuters, on February 27, 2013, to drop ratings for Kwara is yet another confirmation of our worry that the state's finances are in a deep mess. As the story indicated, it is clear that the KWSG opted out of the exercise as a smart move to avoid low ratings that match the state's current financial crisis, occasioned by corruption and mismanagement of public resources.

"Last year, the CBN banned financial institutions from lending to Kwara in response to what the agency deems as its low credit ratings and inability to pay back outstanding loans. As at today, the CBN hammer still hovers over Kwara State. Other groups and institutions erroneously blacklisted by the CBN have since been removed - with apologies where required - while Kwara remains there. This of course rubbishes the noise that the state government was wrongly included on the list.

"Now the Fitch Ratings is dropping its credit worthiness rating of the state, just a year to the time Kwara is supposed to pay back the N17b bond accessed from the capital market to, as they claim, execute projects whose viability and relevance to the state economy are being questioned. It is instructive to note that the state government has borrowed additional N10b to execute the same projects for which N17b was sourced from the capital market.

"All of these point to corruption, reckless mismanagement of public funds and deceit of the PDP-led government - all of these painfully at the expense of the people of Kwara who are bearing the brunts of these recklessness and debt burden."

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