As Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello marks his one year in office on Friday, stakeholders in the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have accused the governor of lavishing over N220 billion of public fund on frivolities and misplaced priorities in the last one year.
At a press conference in Abuja on Friday to appraise the state of affairs in the Confluence State, the stakeholders said having took stock of events in the last one year in Kogi state, they have concluded that the incumbent governor has brought “unprecedented hardship” to the people.
The press conference, which was addressed by Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West in the Senate, was also attended by the Kogi state chairman of APC, 20 out of 35 of the state executive committee members, local government party chairmen, Senator Alex Kadiri, former House of Representatives members, among other prominent party men and women.
They accused Bello of maladministration and high-handedness resulting in system failure in education, security and economic sectors of the state.
“This has led to gross public financial failure and reckless spending by the government as we have it on record that Governor Bello has wasted and lavished over two hundred and twenty billion naira in one year.
“This represents thirteen months Federal Allocations to the state, ten billion naira infrastructural development funds, thirty billion naira bailout fund, over eleven billion naira Parish Club excess refund. We also have the sixteen billion naira refunded for Federal Government roads built by the past administration of Alh. Ibrahim Idris, seven hundred million naira ecological fund.
“All these above exclude an average of six hundred million naira internally generated revenue monthly. Flowing from the above financial scenario, Nigerians will agree with us that Kogi State has not had it so good financially,” they said.
They therefore issued a four-week ultimatum to Governor Bello to reconcile the on-going staff audit in the state with the realities on the ground, pay civil servants, pensioners and others all their entitlements for the past one year, saying that the N30 billion bailout fund was primarily meant for the purposes while part of the N11.2 billion Paris Club refund was also aimed at ameliorating the sufferings of the people of the state.
“Any attempt for Yahaya Bello to think otherwise in this regard, after 4 weeks from today will be met with stiff resistance and peaceful revolution across the 21 local government councils. We urge our civil servants to be patient and be very law abiding till the next four weeks.
“We also call on the state government to re-order the priorities of state in line with the needs and aspirations of our people as the solar street light, the Revenue House and SDG Office being celebrated for 1 year in office for example, have no tangible value and cannot put food on the table of our people,” they added.
Credit: Leadership
