Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has decried what it described as silence by the state government over increasing poverty in the state despite huge resources available to it.

The party, through its spokesman, Darlington Nwauju, in a statement, yesterday, also lamented the weakness of government policies.

The statement reads: “Rivers people cannot accept the excuse of political distractions for failing to work assiduously to reduce insecurity, unemployment, improved access to education, access to clean drinking water and electricity, reduction of poverty by encouraging entrepreneurship, and to achieve lower cost of living in Rivers State by investing massively in housing, transportation, and agriculture.

The party, in the statement, also proffers advice on how unemployment and related matters can be tackled.

It stated: “Initiate reforms aimed at simplifying tax payments for the self-employed in Rivers State to stimulate business investments and encourage our young people to venture into entrepreneurship. By this, Rivers State Government will be offering support to small businesses.

“Small business owners in our hostile environment take so many risks to make investments to build their businesses. Therefore, the Rivers State Government must not destroy the confidence of these small investors. The system must encourage them by discarding policies that will damage their businesses. Doing otherwise will be morally and economically wrong.

“No government in the world can go far without deliberately investing in the potential of its people. Government in Rivers State must invest in its own people going forward.”

The statement stressed the need to cut down taxes for those who work hard to keep the economy moving, stating that it’s a way to incentivize such class of people, increase the population of those captured in the tax net and improve the internally generated revenue (IGR).