By Amuda Dan Sulaiman FAB.
Kogi State chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Haddi Ametuo, has said that the recent distribution of rice and cash to the poverty-stricken people of the state by Governor Yahaya Bello, to mark this year democracy day was meant to celebrate his administration’s deceit, debauchery and systematic swindling of the people.
Ametuo said the distribution of rice and cash by Bello, polling unit by polling unit in the state was nothing, but an act of electoral fraud.
The APC chairman asked the governor to pay workers’ salaries, instead of deceiving them with paltry rice that could not feed them for a day.
Ametuo, who spoke in a statement by his media office on Wednesday, said Bello’s decision to distribute “such paltry food reduces the people to a pitiable state of beggary.”
He said, “It is unfortunate that the Kogi State governor is now embarking on a grandiose charade designed to deceive the people. This is a government that has failed to meet its primary obligation. This is a government that has not paid public servants for 13 months.”
He said there was no justification for the distribution of the “so-called Bello rice at the period the state workers are dying on daily basis and at the time the state is reeling under heavy debt burden. The state debt burden is now in the region of N85bn or more.”
Ametuo said, “What then is the justification of sharing of food if the government cannot meet its primary obligation? Our people are not asking for food from any government. What they are simply asking for is a responsible government, which is currently lacking in the state.”
However, the Secretary, Association of Market Women, Lokoja local government area, branch, Madam Kande Ismaila, said the distribution of the rice and cash showed that Bello was a caring governor.
She said, “Bello had demonstrated his love and respect for the people of the state since he assumed office.
In another development, some residents complain that workers salary haven’t been paid, pensions haven’t been paid and distributing cash and rice is the next thing for the governor.
A resident, Alhaji Usman Malik, wondered how the governor who had refused to pay workers salaries now distribute fifty thousand Naira and 100 (10kg) bags of rice to each polling units in the state that has close to three thousand polling units.
“Why don’t he use the money to pay the workers”, Malik suggested.
Recall that as part of the celebration of the may 29 democracy day. The Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello distributed Cash and Rice to some residents in the state.
The residents, according to this reporter’s findings are merely APC members that are loyal to the governor in the state.
A reliable source told this reporter that governor Bello, instead of using the state government fund to procure the rice, deducted N31million each from the 21 local government allocation.
The source further said that the governor, awarded the contract for the supply of over 50 trailers of rice to one of his cronies, instead of the local government Administrators whose councils funds were deducted.
